Lower coast gazette., 1913-09-13

ding Gown. /!
eY MARTHA MccULLOcH.WlL.
LiAMS.
Molly felt like nodding when she sat
down to her carding; she had sat up
till almost midnight the night before,
picking the cotton from the seed, and
soaping it lightly to make thick, round,
fiat cakes. 1t always seemed to her a
pity to treat the beautiful white, fluffy
Sea Island lint in that way. She had
her W Sea Island cotton patch; Mrs.
Tazewell, her stepmother, raised the
green-seed ~"uplands" because the yield
was heavier. Mrs. Tazewell was an
energetic woman; although the night
before she had stayed up even later
than Molly, she had a wheel-head full
of fresh rolls ready for spinning by
the time Molly took up the cards.
The O was large and clean. BY
the light of the leaping fire and Of the
faint rays of dawn, you saw two noun
famous feather beds in the corners, a
big square table, three or four huge
A chests, as many rush-bottom chairs,
. and a Jackson press-the pride OF Mrs.
Tazewell's heart.
Everything except the press had
been hewn out of native timber-oak,
walnut and cherry. There was not a
sawmill within a hundred miles, for
the Tazewell homestead was n OF
the few settlements that in 1900 dotted
the rich wilderness south of the OHIO
River between the crest of the Blue
le Ridge and the Mississippi.
% Occasionally a keel-boat came tedl'
st ously upstream $500 miles from
New Orleans, or an adventurous
person brought in a W%agon-lOad OF
yt stuff, freighted from Pittsburgh to the
tie falls of the Ohio. The mountain
passes we're still too steep and rough
for wagon traffic, so that the seaboard
it 600 miles eastward, supplied little ex
cept people.
" Even the people, most of them
halted in the valleys nearest the mali
re. mountain chain. Only a few rea
an pioneers who hated the smell OF smok'
At from a neighbours chimney had press
On ed on across the Cumberland rang
ay into the richness and solitude beyond
er, John Tazewell was n OF them
ay He was a born woodsman, and ma,
oil built his cabin home-as he hoped
led 6fty years ahead of civilization.
nd was rude but comfortable-two pen
up of round poles, with mud-daube'
,,t cracks, log gables, and board roo
MS held in place by weight.poles. Weigh
re- poles were necessary when nail
IN ha%nd-wrought in the smithy, cost \
less than tenpence each, and Jon
Tazewell had no time or inclinatlc
can for pegging on boards.
,as Each pen had a big outside chll
ma, nov of "stick.aid-dirt',' with a hear
GUS and fireplace of flat stones. II
an floors were of puncheons-flat sla
from whole tree trunks. The sla
ties were four to five inches thick. a
ting heavy enough to lie in place. Thinn
%puncheons made doors and casing
ION and the doors swung upon big wood
/ of hinges.
At first there had been no windo'
ma. only peep-holes cut between two 10
the and closed Win siiulls "oouen Oh
tiers. Now there were two, each boa
New ing a four-light sash of %seven-by-n1
Jan names. The second Mrs. Tazewell /
the brought them. Along with two OF
chests and the five Hicks boys,
ston %unruly young brothers, they made
rater
her dowry.
pres- When John Tazewell had MARI
pub the widow, he had said to her:
i. Betsy, you are mistress here,
- 90 understand this: / want you to te
less my child, and make her an industrl
woman, but eve to drive her, or
her at drudgery. She has no neet
drudge-Hannah, in the kitchen,
snses longed to her mother. Black Sam
"@' raise us bread-corn and potter al
would generally; l intend to live ana
lency in the woods. Don't cross me In !
augn- and I'll not cross you. You'll keep
,aorta boys, of course, until they are or
primer men-that is, unless they plague
United ". The minute they do that, a.
+ mn MN find it out, away they go"
nv All this had happened when N
d 49,
sue was five, just the age OF LUMP
ry of Youngest Hicks. Now she was
Blan- toon . t,,, nrett girl with soft,
ederal - ) . ova, olive.
was ned face. Since she was thirteen
Angus stenmother had been trying to n
e Will .,;+h ono or another of the Hic
ingen, noi 80 morr;ed no
De par cept Dump, and Molly would hav
LlI4 - Mrc Tar