The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1906-06-01
Uncle Jefy's
Latest Catch.
BY e. crayton M'Cants.
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Three miles out from Keowee, upon
what is known locally as the Mink
Trap read, and just at the summit
of that long red hill which is
fanked on one side by the stony
slopes Of the pasture land and ON the
other by the brown wastes of the
stubble and the straight green rows
Of the corn, stands the Uncle Jeffy
Barnes old place." The house-a
quaint "double-log' cabin-has little
in common with the newer dwellings
which the negroes round about in
habit, for men do not build its kind
any more. Modern cabins may be
reared in day, and are built. princi-
pally, Of thin boards and of scantling,
but the demicile of old Jeffy Barnes
is a relic of bygone age, and stands
as specimen of that rude order of
architecture which was evolved I'M
der the stress Of circumstances, and
which served over fifty years ago to
shelter those faithful black slaves. Of
whom Uncle Jedy was one.
For when old Benjamin Barnes,
Uncle Jeffy's one time *marster," had
come to die, realizing the honest
service of Jeffy and that of gentle
Aunt Sara, he had beaueathed to the
two old negroes some acres of land
that lay about the hill. and had given
them the cabin as well-the cabin
which was then but "A single-roomea
pen of logs, but to which old Jeffy,
as great ct muscle in those days as he
Is now of heart, soon added another
pent-log room. shed-rooms and pas
sages, and in front. long. low-roofed
'py-a2za."
The site Of the house, with its
cribs and outlying barns. Is quite an
elevated one, and in the warm spring
mornings, when the trailing mists hide
the tall cettonwoods that fringe the
nearby streams, and cover, as with 4
garment, the long, low stretches of
the fertile valley land. the earliest
beams of the upcoming sun fall here
upon the tops of the spreading old red
oak trees. Then, before the amber
light has time to drop downward to
the roofs of the barns, the lusty,
black ploughmen emerge from their
doors and go whooping across the
green breadths OF the fallows, and
the red cattle and the dun wander
forth to pasture, and presently one
may hear the sheep-bells tinkling on
all the far-off slopes-for Uncle Jefy
is a notable farmer and his days work
begins with the day. Later, long af-
ter Aunt Sara has put aside de brek-
fus' things" and has taken compla-
Gently to her rocking-chair and her
knitting, the gray mist begins to dis
solve in the warm and liquid sun
shine, and as it streams away and
vanishes, the land far-stretched and
fair lies open to the eye like some
panoramic view. In one place there
is a spring overhung by pale green
willows, further along a little brook
brawls in miniature fury over the OPP
posing stones, while further still
there is the CLEAN of the creek as
the hurrying water slips quickly past
the bridge. only to linger further
along in the deep pools and in the
eddies which lie beyond the bends.
To the right of all this the hill falls
away rapidly, and stands foot to foot
with a long gray ridge wherein the
hickory trees and the great pleasant
white oaks grow, while north and east
and south and west other crests show
themselves, and behind these others
still, until at last there is but the far
horizon where, as it were in the
semblance of hills, the little blue
cloudlets lie. And over it all. over
hillside and valley and stream and
wood, there drifts the marvellous sun