The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1903-05-16
| SERAPHINYS
SUBSTITUTE
By s. B. HackIey.
SSvSVVvvvvvVvV7VVvSvvvSSSS
nC ONE long nigguhs; you's losin'


inside you can't ford tub miss!"
Almost before the last whispered
word slipped from their comrades
mouth the half-dozen incident blacks,
.sprawling in the March sunshine on
the south side of Big Rock church,
made a dash for the door, and, hav-
ing gained it, tiptoed cautiously in
and edged into the crowded back
seat.
The sugar-malsing season was at
its height in Col. Theodore Dents
two camps. The Three Oaks sugar
orchard of n hundred vigorous trees,
in the south hollow, was in the hands
of the Greens, Barlow and Betsey
and their son and daughter, Israel
and Ivory Love, and the orchard on
the north hillside, the Cold Spring
camp, consisting of fewer than so
trees, quarter of a mile away from
the other camp, was run by old lame
Luke Swinebroad. Maria, his wife,
and their niece, Seraphiny. The mo-
lasses yield from the Three Oaks
camp was naturally more than twice
as much as that of the north camp,
and in addition the Green family
looked too well to its own interests
at each weeks dividing time, well
knowing that good-natured, careless
Col. Dent would say nothing when
he got less than half the sweets. Old
Luke, on the contrary, made his
weekly division accurate to drop.
Ivory Love Green had reckoned on
some Sine" summer clothes when
the sugarmaking season was over
and the superfiuous sweets all sold,
with a degree of certainty. Sera-
phiny Swinebroad wanted fine
clothes, too, and wanted them bad
IA. but old Luke's rheumatism af-
ficted him so nightly in the late
winter that he could work but lit
tie, and part of the camp proceeds,
the greater part, had to be sacrificed
to the sugar and coffee gods.
Early in March there came n two
days freeze that ended in an after
noon thaw. About two o'clock in
the night loose shingle above Sera-
phiny's bed in the loft permitted
bit of melting ice to drop directly
on her face. She awoke with
start, and as the drip of the little
brook. gurgling at the foot of the
hill, fell on her ears, she wondered
drowsily if the sap had begun to
run.
mo, my trees is on de cole north
side" she reflected; "dey won't run
befo' de sun stracks 'em termorrer
noon. but dem Green niggers' trees
is runnin' now, I'll be willin' to bet
slime!"
Suddenly something prompted her
to rise, throw on her clothes, her
rusty hood and shawl, and in her
stocking feet creep stealthily down
the ladder leading from her loft and
past her foster parents, who snored
heavily in their four-poster. The
door once closed behind her. she
drew on her shoes, and taking up two
big tin buckets went hastily to the
north sugar camp. She stopped by
tree and felt the sumach spile-the
ice in it was hard as bone. Quickly
and decisively she lifted her buckets
again and set off towards the Three
WINS CdiIp. Inv Wdtci uiipPcu hoio-
lessly in the pals there; some of
them were already full. Seraphiny
hurredly filled her two buckets and
tramped back to her own camp,
where she poured her precious con-
tents into an empty barrel. Her arms
soon ached and her feet grew heavy
with WEAKNESS, but she persevered,
until at last the barrel was brim-
ming full of water carried from the
Three Oaks camp and there was a
suggestion of pink in the east.
As she left the hollow, laboriously |
carrying the last two buckets, her
feet crunched noisily among the dead
leaves in the path, the sound of
other footsteps sent a faintness over
her. She looked fearfully behind her
nothing living was visible, although
TO her excited fancy the dogwood
branches waving in the full light Of
the moon looked like human hands |
pointing after her.
Clip Cummins stopped at the Swine
broad's that day. and at the earnest
solicitation of the old people re-
manned TO partake in the midday
meal.
III jes' drappcd in" he explained,
"tuh see ef you alls didn' need some |
wood cut uh millin' done nh Some
thin'. heerd you wah mighty bad