The coastland times. [volume] (Mnateo [i.e. Manteo], N.C.) 1947-1959, 1956-02-24

hang around. There always SEEM
ed to be more Yankees punched
up there anyhow.
"Right then we We're getting
enough to eat at home such as it
was, but there wasn't anything
extra and like most boys l had
sweet tooth. My chum, grandpop
called him my comrade in crime,
was twelve years old and small
for his age and he was a right
pretty boy. He had nice soft hair
that people were forever mussin'
up, which he didn't like. He told
me that he hoped he grew to be
nine feet tall SOS people would
keep their darn hands outten his
hair. He was smart too, smart as
a crow. He had right long name,
but we all called him Brud. He
and his sister Helen, who was older
than iBrud or me either and as
pretty as a well settin' jib topsl,
lived with doctor out on North
Street. They had sailed up here
from Little River in skiff after
their house burned down.
Shad Fishing With An Oar
"We could get all the shad with
the skiff that we wanted. You
could just about splash them out
on the bank with an oar they was
that thick. We, traded them to the
soldiers for sugar or matches and
sometimes coffee, but after the
Jersey soldiers were relieved by
some men from round Boston, we
found out that they had some
maple sugar that their folks had
sent them. After we found out
that it came from trees, we called
it sap sugar but it was the best
tina! l ever tasted. / still like it.
"They were hard to trade with.
They didn't want no shad and
they sure liked to haggle. Henry
Hoses who was black Yankee on
the "Deering", said that them
Boston men were so Yankeefied
that even the men from New
Hampshire called 'em damn Yam
KEGS. The shad run had about
| petered out so iffen we wanted
some of that sap sugar, we would
have to try another plan to get it.
"Brud hit on the plan that really
paid off. After we practiced the
plan, / led Brud down to the river
where the Yankees were lomixin'
around and he sure looked pitiful.
l most felt sorry for him myself.
He could suck his cheeks in and
hold 'em that way so that he look
ed about half starved. He limped
like it was downright painful for
him to move and he held his arm
so that it appeared to be shorter
than the other and crippled up
bad. Then on top of that he acted
like he was blind.
Selling Sap Sugar
"That worked out fine and we
got all the sap sugar that we
could eat. We should have been
satisfied and left well enough
alone, but we got greedy and
Brud allowed the sap sugar
wouldn't last forever so we should
ought to get all we could before
we got found out. Sooner or later
Pm going to forget and limp with
the wrong leg or slap a deerfly
with my crippled arm or some
thin',' he said.
"He had an idea that iffen /
told the soldiers that he, Brud,
wanted the sugar to take home to
his poor little sister who was sick
and cried all the time for some
thin sweet, we might melt their
hard hearts before the hot weather
melted the sap sugar. 1t worked
one hundred percent. In no time
at all, we had a store of sugar
hid over to grandpop's house and
we had found market for it
iffen we wanted to sell any of it.
The darkeys would pay real coin
money for it and they had more
money than what the white boys
had. Most every slave woman in
the place had run away to the is
land to get freedom from General
Burnside, and they said he didn't
frown on nobody iffen any of 'em
was found in the Yankee tents
after dark. l heard that the same
thing had happened over here.
Anyway them boys got spending
money somehow. We fingered their
mothers and sisters gave it to 'em.
eve talked it over not knowing
just what to do, but we decided
it would be right pleasant to be
rich and the best and quickest