Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1906-06-20
Uncle JeGy's
--latest Catch.
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
BY 3. Crayton M'Cants.

by II. CRAY ION M CdQCS.
Three miles out from Keowee, upon
hat is known locally as the Mink
rap, road, and just at the summit
that long red hill which is
anked on one side by the stony
Opes Of the pasture land and on the
her by the brown wastes of the
ubble and the straight green rows
the corn, stands the Uncle Jeffy
arnes old place" The house-a
faint "double-Iog" cabin-has little
common with the newer dwellings
hich the negroes round about in
tbit, for men do not build it's kind
" more. Modern cabins may be
AIRED in a day, and are built, princi-
lily, Of thin boards and of scantling,
Ut the domicile Of old Jeffy Barnes
a relic of a bygOne age, and stands
specimen of that rude order Of
chitecture which was evolved IN
II the stress of circumstances, and
lich served over fifty years ago to
eIter those faithful black slaves, Of
HON Uncle Jeffy was one.
For when old Benjamin Barnes,
ncIe Jeffy's one time "marster," had
me to die, realizing the honest
rvice of Jeffy and that of gentle
Int Sara, he had beQueathed to the
10 old negroes some acres of land
at lay about the hill, and had given
in
lich was then but a single-roomed
N Of logs, but to which old Jeffy,
great of muscle in those days as he
now of heart, soon added another
nt-log room, shed-rooms and pas
ges, and in front, a long, loW-rOofed
y-azza."
The site Of the house, with its
lbs and outlying barns, is quite an
9yated one, and in the warm spring
lrnings, when the trailing mists hide
E tall cottonWoods that fringe the
arby streams, and cover, as with
rment, the long, low stretches Of
fertile valley land, the earliest
ans Of the upcOming sun fall here
on the tops of the spreading old red
k trees. Then, before the amber
lat has time to drop downward to
roofs Of the barns, the Iusty,
.ck ploughmen emerge from their
Ors and go WhOOping across the
cen breadths of the fallOws, and
red cattle and the dun wander
til to pasture, and presently one
~ hear the sheep-bells tinkling on
the far-off slopes-for Uncle Jeffy
a notable farmer and his days work
gins with the day. Later, long af-
Aunt Sara has put aside "de brek-
$ things" and has taken compla-
ntly to her rocking-chair and her
lifting, the gray mist begins to dis
I've in the warm and liquid sun
inc, and as it streams away and
nishes, the land far-stretched and
If lies open to the eye like some
noramic view. In one place there
a spring overhung by pale green
uows, further along a little brook
avis in miniature fury over the OPP
SAuS SIOuC0g Wn410 luIIuSE sui
ere is the CLEAN of the creek as
hurrying water slips quickly past
bridge, only to linger further
ng in the deep pools and in the
lies which lie beyond the bends.
the right of all this the hill falls
az. rapidly, and stands foot to foot
h a long gray ridge wherein the
hory trees and the great pleasant
tie oaks grow, while north and east
south and west other crests show
nselYes, and behind these others
until at last there is but the far
zon where, as it were in the
blance Of hills, the little blue
diets lie. And over it all, over
ide and valley and stream and
/, there drifts tho marvellous sun