Evening star., 1924-07-20

young wife, Marthy, to sandy
land homestead, twenty e
miles from the nearest railroad,
in that section of the country which
borders the Gulf of Mexico. There
followed shortly the inevitable loi
rolling, at which the neighhors, most
~ HudSills themselves, contributed
their labor.
Shug furnished refreshments, in the
form of Shiny" an unpalatable but
unusually potent native rum. Th'
house, a two-room cabin of the sad
die bag" type, was soon erected
Hand-split pine boards covered the
roof. An unglazed window and a
door in each room, which would be
closed with rough wooden shutters
during inclement weather, served for
ventilation and lighting. \ stick
and clay chimney at one end. of the
cabin gave outlet to the single fire.
place which was to answer the dual
purpose of cooking and heating.
Shug accumulated two or three
razor-back hogs. These were left. in
the main. to shift for themselves.
During severe weather such of the
=
pints of milk daily were fed little
home grown fodder and corn on the
ear The hogs probed for succulent
roots in the rank underground of the
nearby swamp. Sweet potatoes yield
cd generously in new ground. Each
year a fresh plot was cleared, broken
and planted to these. A patch of
sugar cane was always grown for mo-
1asseS. \ portion of this was finally
made into shiny
1t was amid these surroundings that
the girl Selma 10 was born.
For the first eighteen months of her
existence the baby crawled about the
cabin unnamed Then it occurred to
Narthy that their offspring ought to
be christcned.
Slug" she suggested calmly.
"scems to me we ort TO be namin
that air young 'un.'
Shug, lollng in the shade OF a
water oak, shifted his quid and spat
disinterestedly. Il amt ebjectin
none" he replied.
How bout calm her liny Joe >
Marthy asked
''t'ittin' enough name fer her.
rcckin.' Shug yawned.
As the child grew up she came to
accept her parents as they had long
since accepted her-merely as 4 bald
fact.
once Marthy came upon Shug whip
ping the girl with switch.
What YOU whippin' her fer:' she
asked Her tone was one of simple
curiosity, nothing else.
All young 'uns needs it," Shug re-
piled virtuously. Hadn't been my
daddy usetah whale me powerful I
wouldn't a been nigh the man 1 am
now-not nigh"
1t was matter for remark that
even at a tender age Selma 10 rarely
emitted any outcry under punishment
There burned in her sloe- black eyes,
though, the flame of an emotion
which she checked upon the surface.
Selma 10, upon a daily ration made
up almost exclusively of corn pone.
molasses and home-cured pork as salt
as ocean brine, f1ourished amazingly.
She was precocious, too. She learned
early that, as a source Of informa-
ton, her parents were practically
nil. Thenceforth the questions that
had rushed to her lips were succeeded
by d look of eternal interrogation in
her somber eyes.
X x x =
4 F'TEE her twelfth birthday,
young school tcacher--the only
one the community ever knew-came
into Fthe Hudsill settlement. Selma
10 was grudgingly allowed to attend
the school. For six months the
young mans enthusiasm held out.
Then it wancd and died. But before
the school closed Selma 10 had
learned the alphabet and portion of
the old-fashioned first reader.
The school teacher had lighted the
fires of ambition within her.
"S'liny Jo.' she informed herself
one day in a fit of musing, you air
as p'izen strong as a gallon o. green
shiny, but you don't know skercely
nothin'. A moment later she added
dejectedly: "Ner amt got no chancet
o learnin', neither"
Shoalwater River afforded her chief
means of diversion. She never re-
membered when or how she learned
to swim, but every day she enjoyed
a plunge in the river and she noticed
that no less pleasant than the contact
of the water with her naked body
was the comfortable after feeling of
cleanliness.
She had early begun to assist with
the crops. With the manure scraped
from the COW lot she made beds for
the potatoes. At planting time she
pulled tho slips and set them out.
She hoed the sugar cane and thinned
Sr a al
most as much work as Shug and
Marty combined.
Before she was fourteen she had