W^:-: ;;^:if5^#«#^i*^: ■• ii i'f j ii jl. ; - '*' « * « • is^ » * ,*<« ■>p -e^ ^1 1^ "¥ n m I Cibrarij of Q:i?e University of Uoxtlj Carolina COLLECTION OF NORTH CAROLIXIANA ENDOWED B Y JOHN SPRUNT HILL of the class of 1889 G % \ "^ -- iA ^ ■^ ? This BOOK may be kept out TWO WEEKS ONLY and is subject to a fine of FIVE CENTS a day thereafter. It was taken out on the day indi- cated below: 2iMrio 2Apr'32l\p 25Mr'tO 2;. f *^ Jet — 5-797^ 26 Mr 'H t^« -js^rs if r HUNT DID THE WEIGHING AND PAYING-OFF HIMSELF. Pine Ridge Plantation OR THE TRIALS AND SUCCESSES OF A YOUNG COTTON PLANTER BY WILLIAM DRYSDALE Author of " Helps for Ambitious Boys," " Helps for Ambitious Girls," etc. NEW YORK THOMAS Y. CROWELL & CO. PUBLISHERS Copyright, igoi, By Thomas Y. Crowell & Company. CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE I. Hunt Kobertson, the Farm Drudge ..... 1 II. Colonel Andrews, of North Carolina ... 14 III. Hunt Becomes a North Carolinian .... 25 IV. A Modest Home in the Sunny South ... 39 V. The Cargo op the Maria Louise 52 VI. The ''Patch" Gradually Becomes a Plan- V TATION 64 VII. The Family in the Brice Creek Home . . 81 VIII. " Cone-Plantin' Time" 100 IX. General Miles Eats a Welshman 109 ;jv X. First Cotton Plants 121 ^ XI. An Encounter With Drunken Negroes . . 129 *" XII. A Great Kise in Cotton 139 ■^ XIII. Scotty Watson in New Bern 149 ^ XIV. A Cotton Contract 158 XV. A Bear in the Corn 166 XVI. The Plantation Grows 172 XVII. In the Old Ferry House 180 VI CONTENTS. CHAPTER PAGE XVIII. Fishing Through the Ice 189 XIX. Trials of a "Gentleman Sportsman" . . 196 XX. A Mule and a Blizzard 204 XXI. New Bern Under the Snow 216 XXII. Fifty Bales of Cotton 224 XXIII. A Voyage to Beaufort 236 XXIV. Stocking a Pig Park 246 XXV. Hunt Visits Georgia 255 XXVI. Delights of Home 267 XXVII. Mr. Warren's Plantation 279 XXVIII. ScoTTY Makes a Start 290 XXIX. New Acquaintances 301 XXX. A Familiar Face 311 ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Hunt Did the Weighing and Paying-off Himself. (Page 141) Frontispiece. Thirty Dollars was Cheap for ''the Entire Out- fit" 68 Some of Hunt's '^ Colored Neighbors" 77 With Mary on the Pony in the Lead and the Ox- Cart Bringing up the Kear 91 A Youthful Cotton-Picker 140 While One Plowed With the Ox the Other Plowed with the Mule 224 **IDone Gwine Show yo' de Kest, Boss" .... 250 Hunt Could not Convince Himself that there Would be much more than Three-quarters of A Crop 295 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. CHAPTER I. HUNT ROBERTSON, THE FARM DRUDGE. " Hunt, Hunt, come here, sir !" Huntley Robertson, the owner of the name, sprang instantly out of his hard and narrow cot-bed, and in so doing struck his head a ringing whack against one of the rafters of the low loft in which he slept. " Yes, sir, at once, sir !" he answered, as he groped about in the gloom for some of his clothes. "Don't you know it's after four?" came in the same voice. There was nothing alarming in the words; but Hunt recognized the imperative tone of farmer War- ren, who was in part his guardian and in whole his master ; and he was startled at seeing the first gleams of daylight steahng through the narrow window of the loft, and he had been cautioned to be astir before half-past four. " It's well I have so few clothes, and such old ones," he said to himself, as he quickly dressed, " for they don't take much time." 2 PINE RWGE PLANTATION. " Come, young man, this sort of thing won't do, you know !" farmer Warren exclaimed, menacingly, to him a few moments later, in the back yard. The farmer held a riding-whip in his hand and snapped it as he spoke, but the boy did not flinch, for he had no reason to fear. The boy who stood manfully up before his master, without the least suspicion of bravado or imperti- nence in his manner, was the Hunt of the few old clothes and the bumped head. " Sorry if I'm late, sir,'' he said ; ^' but I kept watch on the window for daylight, and you know I have no clock, sir." Farmer Warren gave the whip a vicious snap, but there was nothing vicious in his look as he fixed his eyes upon the boy. Being a man of labor himself, he looked rather admiringly at the strong, well-knit frame of his farm drudge, grown now to nearly five feet six inches in height, with the muscles of his upper and lower limbs well developed by several years of almost unceasing labor upon his farm. The thick coat- ing of tan upon Hunt's hands and face showed that he had taken his full share of sun and wind, as a farmer's boy should. There was a frank, honest, manly look in his face, which corresponded well with his brown eyes and wavy brown hair. " Oh, you Avant a clock, do you ? " Farmer War- ren laughed, with another wicked snap of the whip. " A clock, upon my w^ord ! AVhy not a coil o' steam pipes to keep you warm ? Or suppose we say an ele- HUNT ROBERTSON, THE FARM DRUDGE. 3 vator to carry you up to your set of apartments^ with- out the trouble of climbing the stairs ? How would that do, Mister Hunt ? or a nice velvet carpet on the floor, or a soft arm-chair to rest in ? " The farmer emphasized each of these suggestions with a snap of the whip. "A clock, eh? We're getting pretty high and mighty in our notions, lately. I'm afraid you're growing discontented. Hunt, and there's nothing equal to one of these things to take discontent out of a boy ; " and again he snapped the whip. " No, sir ; I'm not discontented," Hunt answered respectfully ; " only if I had a clock I could always be up in time, sir. If I just earned a little spending- money now and then, hke other fellows, I should buy one for myself, sir." " Like other fellows ! " the farmer quickly re- peated, making circles in the air with the whip. " Like Scotty Watson, I guess you mean. He's the boy that's been filling your head with bad notions, and the less you have to do with him the better you'll be off. Don't you know that he has to work like a slave for his little spending-money, in that factory or furnace or whatever he works in ? " " That's just what he tells me, sir," Hunt replied ; " but he don't mind the work any more than I mind work on the farm, sir ; but I'd like a chance to strike out for myself, sir, some day, so as to see something ahead." "Another of Scotty's notions," the farmer de- PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. clared ; " and I know what you're hinting at, when you speak of having a little spending-money. You need not be alarmed, young man, for your money is all safe in my desk — the one hundred and fifty dollars your father left you, and the twenty-five dollars you have added to it by your own labor/' " I suppose you know," he continued, " that your father was the poorest man in Ontario County, except two or three who had nothing but debts. But he left you what little he had, and I have it safe for you, and you may have a receipt for it whenever you want it, so you needn't hint about it." " No, sir ; indeed I was not hinting about money," Hunt protested. " I know that much more than that would be quite safe in your hands, sir. And you have always been very kind to me, Mr. Warren, and I am not discontented. Indeed I am not, sir; only I want a chance to do something for myself, so that I shall not be the poorest man in Ontario County, like my poor father." " Look at this farm, young man ! " Mr. Warren commanded, sweeping his whip around in a great circle. " There is no better farm in Ontario County, sir," Hunt admitted. " You're right, boy ! " Mr. Warren continued ; " there's no better between Geneva and Canandaigua, or anywhere about here. It is just about what a farm should be. Look at those barns, boy, and that twenty- acre pasture lot ; and the grain fields, and the orch- HUNT ROBERTSON, THE FARM DRUDGE. 5 ards. Fences all up, boy, and no discount on the live stock in the barns, eh?^' It was a common saying among the neighbors that David Warren was a just man, but as changeable in his moods as a weather vane in the winds ; and Hunt saw his moods change rapidly that morning. " Now, see here. Hunt ; look at me ! " the farmer resumed. a ^e're agreed that this is a good farm, eh ? Well, what makes it a good farm ? Nature made the soil good in the beginning, but it's my money and my labor that have made it what it is this minute. Now, whenever you begin to feel discontented, I want you to remember that you get as much out of this farm as I do. Don't you forget that, my boy." " As much as you do, sir ! " Hunt exclaimed in surprise. " Yes, sir ; just as much as I do ! " the farmer resumed. " I get my board and clothes out of it, and so do you ; so we're even on that. You get plenty to eat, don't you ? And good enough clothes to wear ? " " Yes, sir ; but you are the master of the farm and everything on it," Hunt answered ; " and I should like to be my own master, sometime, when I am old enough." ^' Hunt, come here and give me your hand ! " Mr. Warren ordered, turning toward the boy, for his mood had suddenly changed again. " I like to see the am- bition in you, my boy," he continued, when. Hunt stepped up and held out his hand. " I like to see a 6 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. boy with grit enough to want to strike out for him- self; and if the time ever comes for you to strike out, you may count on me for a friend. There was some- thing more your father left you, Hunt, that I forgot to mention a minute ago." " Something more my father left me, sir ! '' Hunt replied, greatly surprised. " Yes, sir ; the greatest thing your father left you was a sister,'' Mr. Warren resumed. " She is worth more to you than the little money you inherited. Hunt. You have always been a good brother to her, I must admit, and have done as much for her as you could ; and I like you for it ; but before you get these foolish notions into your head, Hunt, think of her. Always say to yourself, ^ I must think of my sister.' " " Yes, sir ! " Hunt answered, " I think very much of her, and it is mainly on her account that I want to make something of myself, sir." "Go and get that kitchen fire started, boy !" Mr. Warren exclaimed, laughing, and suddenly withdraw- ing his hand. " Do you see that sun ? Whether it's on my farm or your own. Hunt, always let the smoke of the kitchen chimney be ready to greet the first ray of the sun. Away with you, boy ! " With these words Mr. Warren started off at a rapid pace toward the stables, lea\ang Hunt to struggle alone Avith the kitchen fire. But this was plain sailing for him, for he was a " forehanded " boy in all matters of duty, and never let an evening pass without having HUNT ROBERTSON, THE FARM DRUDGE. 7 his kindling-wood for morning split and neatly laid behind the kitchen stove. The entrance to the kitchen was from the little '^ stoop'' at the side, invisible from where the two had been standing talking, and when Hunt reached it and sprang briskly up the steps, it gave him a shock to see that the door stood ajar. Still, that might not mean burglars during the night, because he was a little late, and Mrs. Warren sometimes made a very early appearance in the kitchen. In another moment he was sure that Mrs. Warren was within, for her shrieks fell upon his ears. "Oh, oh!" she cried; "my lands a massy!" " Well, of all my born days ! Hunt, Hunt, do come here ! oh-h-h ! " With a single bound Hunt was at the door, fearing that in starting the fire Mrs. Warren might have set fire to her clothing, for there was not the least doubt about her voice. One look, when he dashed into the room, convinced him that his mistress was not on fire, but that something had " scar't the mortal life clean almost out of her," as she said, for she was standing helpless and limp. " Ow ! ow ! Hunt, what is it ? " she continued her cries. " Do take it out of this, Hunt, for massy 's sake ! " " What is it ?" That was the important point, for after the open yard the kitchen was almost dark. Hunt looked well around him, prepared to encounter a burglar, if necessary, but no burglar was in sight. 8 PWE RIDGE PLANTATION. Yet something surely moved in the dark corner be- yond the stove; and just as surely he saw a pair of round eyes shining at him from that corner, down close enough to the floor to be a cat's eyes, but far too large for a cat's eyes. Mrs. Warren evidently saw the same alarming sight, for she continued to beg Hunt to " Take it away ! Do take it away, Hunt, before it kills some of us.'' While he peered cautiously into every possible nook and corner, thoughts of some possible wild animal flashed through Hunt's mind — a bear, perhaps ; but the idea of a bear in a farmhouse kitchen in Central New York was too ridiculous to consider, though the glowing eyes were just about as far above the floor as a bear's would be if he held his head down. His own eyes becoming more accustomed to the gloom. Hunt made out a strange, uncouth shape, above the eyes, that alarmed him ; and from the top of this dim form there extended, evidently, a pair of small legs, sticking up, and beating the air. " I think it's a — ." He was about to say " a boy," but before he could finish the sentence, the dangling legs were thrown suddenly forward, the large feet belonging to them struck the floor with a thud, and there stood before them, bowing and smiling, a small boy, with the blackest face they had ever seen — the face apparently of a little old man, his bright eyes rolling dreadfully, and he grinning till he showed every one of his white teeth. HUNT ROBERTSON, THE FARM DRUDGE, 9 " Gimme a nickel, boss, an' I'll tu'n you another handspring ! " this apparition pleaded ; and he held his hands out and seemed about to carry the offer into effect, but raised one black hand to snatch off his tattered soft gray felt hat. This alarming appearance, as if the black boy had sprung up through the floor, Avas more than Mrs. Warren could stand, and she began to shriek again, turning imploringly to Hunt, and wringing her hands. '' Take it away. Hunt ! " she cried. " I do believe it's the evil one himself, or one of his imps. Take it away — do. Hunt ! " " Bress yer ha' at, ma'am," the little black ex- claimed ; " yer not 'feared of a pore little niggah, is you ? I'se not gwine done hurt yer, ma'am." Certainly, he did not look dangerous, for he was not more than four feet high, his short, thin legs encased in very tight trousers, and his long, slim arms now hung down meekly by his sides. So Hunt made bold to seize him by one arm, as if to lead him away. "Where did you come from, boy?" Hunt de- manded ; " and what's your name ? " " No'th Ca'line, boss," the boy readily answered ; "and my name hit be N-N-Nathaniel." "But what are you doing here?" Hunt asked; and, before the question could be answered, Mrs. Warren gave vent to a fresh series of shrieks : " Oh, take it away ! take it away ! " So Hunt led the willing boy out of the door. 10 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION, " Now, what do you want ? '' he asked, when they stood outside, on the '' stoop." " Please, boss ! '' the little black answered, '^ Gun- nel Andrews he done sen' me here ter say he be stayin' in de tavern doun ter Genevy, an' he comin' here heself, terday, if he kin git here." Now that the black boy was outside, Mrs. Warren felt much reheved, and the name of Golonel Andrews immediately attracted her attention. " What's that ? " she asked, turning toward them ; " Golonel Andrews in Geneva ? And your name is Nathaniel, is it ? Nathaniel what ? " "No, ma'am," the boy answered, grinning again, and rolling his eyes wildly ; " not N-N-Nathaniel Watt, ma'am, N-N-Nathaniel Brown." " Oh ! and you walked here this morning from Geneva, did you?" Mrs. Warren asked. " No, ma'am," Nathaniel replied ; " I run'd every bressed step of de way ; 'deed I did, ma'am." "Are you Colonel Andrews's boy?" Hunt asked. " Wat, me, sah ? " Nathaniel replied, still grinning. " No, sah ! You t'ink Gunnel Andrews have a little niggah like me, sah ? No, sah, me fadder, he Gunnel Andrews's boy, sah." He said it with pride, and was about to say more ; but unfortunately at that moment Mrs. Warren threw up her hands, as if in dismay ; and, with one farewell handspring down the steps, Nathaniel disappeared up the path toward the front gate, and around the corner of the house, his little legs looking unequal to the BUNT ROBERTSON, THE FARM DRUDGE. 11 task of dragging along his great feet. But at the last 2)oint at which he was visible from the kitchen he turned one more handspring, snatched off his hat again, bowed and grinned, and rolled his eyes as if he would include soil and sky and all the adjoining counties in that last look. " Well, I never ! '^ Mrs. Warren declared, when Hunt returned to the kitchen. ^' That blackey looks old enough to be his own grandfather, but he's no bigger 'n one of our old roosters. But you hustle around. Hunt, and get this stove hot. You heard what he said, did you? If Colonel Andrews is in Geneva, as he said, we're agoing to have company to-day, for sure. But I forgot you don't know about it. Colonel Andrews, he's a big cotton planter from down South, and he an' Mr. Warren have been writ- ing letters to one another about exchanging properties. So you must make everything neat and tidy. Hunt, after the breakfast is cleared away." Hunt's work on the Warren farm was not all out in the fields, but lay in large part in the farmhouse kitchen, where he was Mrs. Warren's sole assistant. He soon had the fire roaring ; but that, as he well knew, was only the beginning of his duties prepara- tory to breakfast. He went out to the pump and filled the teakettle, brought in a strip of smoked bacon from the adjoining pantry, and cut off six neat slices. Then the cattle needed his attention in the barn ; and more than an hour passed before he could return to eat the hot biscuit and slice of bacon and odds and 12 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. ends of bread that Mrs. Warren left upon the kitchen table for him, both Mr. and Mrs. Warren having meanwhile eaten their own breakfasts in an adjoining room. Taking only a few hasty bites while standing, Hunt, when he returned to the kitchen, set immediately to work at the cleaning and scouring that he knew he must do if Mrs. Warren expected company that day. The kitchen stove was now cold, and his first work was to polish it till it shone like a mirror. Then he took up all the pots and pans in use and carried them into the yard, where he scoured them till they were as bright as new. Knives and forks and kitchen spoons came next, and he continued his scouring till all the kitchenry was in excellent order. This and future work in the barn kept him busy till past ten o'clock ; and when he next returned to the kitchen to carry in more water for his mistress, he was surprised by a visit from Mr. Warren. "You have everything looking very bright and clean, here. Hunt," the farmer told him, "and Fm glad of it, for we expect company to-day. If that little black imp told the truth, we may expect to see Colonel Andrews here before night." " But I'm going to send you down to Geneva, pres- ently, with the gray mare to bring Colonel Andrews here," he continued ; " so I will tell you who he is. You know the road to Geneva, of course, and if he is there you will be sure to find him at the Jefferson House, because that is the best hotel." HUNT ROBERTSON, THE FARM DRUDGE. 13 " You wouldn't find Colonel Andrews in any hotel but the best/' he went on, " for he is not afraid to spend his money. Colonel Andrews has a large cotton plantation down in North Carolina; and as he knows a good farm when he sees it, he and I have been writing to one another for some time about ex- changing our properties — trading, you know. I don't suppose anything will come of it ; but when you get down there I want you to give him my compliments, and tell him I sent you down to bring him up here, if he can come. Then you bring him back with you, if he'll come. Do you hear ? The colonel is a very fine gentleman, and I want you to treat him just as polite and nice as you know how. Now, run up to your room and spruce yourself up a bit, and take the gray mare and top-buggy down to Geneva." CHAPTER II. COLONEL ANDREWS, OF NORTH CAROLINA. It made a gala day for Hunt, driving alone to Geneva with the top-buggy, the newest and shiniest vehicle that the Warren farm afforded. FoUoAving instructions to the letter, he kept the gray mare at a leisurely pace, exercised great care in the busy streets of the town, and drew up beside the horse block in front of the Jefferson House, where one of the stable boys ran up and took his horse by the bridle. " I am looking for Colonel Andrews,'' he told the boy ; " can you tell me where to find him ? " " That's Colonel Andrews, on the piazza," the boy answered, nodding his head toward a gentleman who sat tilted back against the wall, in one of the broad arm chairs. "Here he comes now." Hunt sprang out, and waited at the foot of the piazza steps for the tall, plump, well-dressed and well-tanned gentleman in a broad-brimmed, pearl- gray hat, who now approached and lithely descended the steps, with content and good-nature written in every feature of his handsome face. " Looking for me, my boy ? " the gentleman asked, when he reached Hunt, and patted him kindly on the shoulder. " That's a fine animal you have there," he 14 COLONEL ANDREWS, OF NORTH CAROLINA. 15 continued ; and in another moment he had stroked the mare's sleek side, looked at her mouth, and lifted lier " nigh " forefoot. " She's Farmer Warren's mare, if I'm not mistaken," he added, after completing the examination. '^ And are you Mr. Warren's boy ? " " Yes, sir," Hunt repHed ; put at his ease by the gentleman's friendly manner. " Mr. Warren sends his compliments to you, sir, and sent me to carry you down to the farm, if you can go, sir." "Very kind of him, I'm sure," the colonel ex- claimed, looking the buggy over with a critical eye, and offering his hand to Hunt. " Friend Warren must have confidence in you, my boy, to trust you mth the gray mare, and the top-buggy that he drives to church in." The coin that Colonel Andrews flipped to the stable boy for holding the horse was a quarter-dollar. Hunt was almost sure ; and when the colonel's boy, Mose, from North Carolina, appeared, as he did in a few minutes, the chief end and aim of his life seemed to be to brush the very last speck of dust from the colonel's clothes, and to leave no spot or blemish upon his patent-leather boots. Mose looked to Hunt a little past thirty, a full-grown man, and a man of no little importance, in his own eyes, because his was the sole responsibility for keeping "de Kunnel's" clothing presentable. When Mose, in coming to the front, stuck his head in the partly open door, and called back to some invisible person, " Now, you git back dar, you liT niggah. Ef you follers me agin, I'll 16 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. wring your brack neck, I will/' it was presumably to the acrobatic Nathaniel that he was talking ; and the frequent thumping of a pair of hands upon the bare floor inside, followed always by the louder thump- ing of a pair of heavy shoes, justified the inference that Nathaniel was turning a series of handsprings down the long hall. " I'm going out to the Warren farm, Mose," the colonel said to his man, as he seated himself in the buggy. " That's six or seven miles from here, and I shall want you there during the day, but it's too far for you to walk. So you take the one o'clock train up to Phelps, the next town from here, and then walk a mile or two across. The Warren farm ; you hear, boy ?" " Yis, sah ; yis, Kunnel. I'll be dar, sah," Mose replied, taking off his hat and bowing and scraping himself all the way up the piazza steps ; " yis, Kunnel, nevah feah 'bout Mose, sah, he be dah, suh, sah." "Go on, my boy," the colonel then told Hunt, smiling a little at Mose's antics. " If you don't have to hurry home, we might drive around the streets a little, to see the town, and the lake it stands on ; what's the name of this lake here ?" "Seneca Lake, sir," Hunt answered, proud to be able to give any information to so fine a gentleman ; "and I know Mr. Warren would want me to take you wherever you like to go, sir." They had not driven far through the streets before Hunt was nodding and smiling at a young man in COLONEL ANDREWS, OF NORTH CAROLINA. 17 working-clothes, who was waving his hand furiously in return, and who evidently desired to stop and speak. "That a friend of yours, my boy?" the colonel asked. " Yes, sir," Hunt answered ; " that's Scotty Wat- son. He works here in Geneva, sir." " Then stop and speak to him, if you want to," the colonel ordered ; " don't hesitate on my account, for I'm in no hurry," and Hunt pulled up to the curb and stopped. " Hello, Scotty," was his greeting, " I'm afraid you're not looking well ; ain't you feeling as well as usual ?" Scotty touched his hat respectfully to the colonel before answering. " Yes, just about as well as usual. Hunt, and that's not saying very much. This early and late business is doing me up, for a fact, and I don't see that there's ever going to be any end to it. But my boss pays for my muscle, and I suppose he's entitled to wear it out if he wants to. It's wearing the heart out of me, too. Hunt, this everlasting grind for other people. I like work, and I don't care how much I have of it, if I could be working for myself, and see a little something ahead, old fellow. Some day I want to strike out for myself, old chap, and then we'll see whether I haven't a lot of good work in me." " Working for wages, for one of the big firms here, are you ?" the colonel asked, turning pleasantly toward 2 18 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. Scotty. " Well, my boy, I don't wonder that you feel all fagged out, for you have precious little to look forward to. I never see a working boy up in the North here without feeling like advising him to come down into my country and strike out for himself. I come from North Carolina, Scotty, where a man can work outdoors nearly every day in the year, and where a poor boy can begin by buying a little patch of land very cheap, and put up his own little shanty, and soon buy his own mule, and gradually turn his land into a little cotton plantation, and so work on and up till he makes a man of himself. There's something to look forward to, you see, Scotty, and it's better than wear- ing your life out here in the Northern cities, as so many poor boys are doing. You can't do the same thing up here, you know, because the price of land is so much higher ; and I'm sure there is no outlook for you in a factory. It seems to me that all the poor boys in the North just crowd into the towns, where they are ground into powder. I wish I could take a few regiments of them south with me, where they would have a chance to make men of themselves." " Is land cheaper down in North Carolina, sir ?" Scotty asked, apparently much interested. " What could a fellow buy a little land down there for, sir ?" " That depends upon the situation," the colonel answered, smiling. "Now, my place is near Golds- boro', where good land is worth nearly as much as it is here in Central New York. But suppose you went a few miles out of New Bern, let us say, where I go COLONEL ANDREWS, OF NORTH CAROLINA, 19 to do a great deal of my business. There the Neuse and the Trent Rivers flow together, you know ; and if you should go three or four miles up the Trent River, to a good spot I know, I think you could get wild land for a dollar or two dollars an acre. That is a cotton country, you know, and besides it is a great trucking country ; and you could make that same land worth fifty dollars an acre in a few years, if you gave it plenty of hard work.'^ " But a fellow must have some sort of a house to live in down there, sir, I suppose ?" Scotty asked. " Of course, he must," the colonel answered, smiling again. " We have saw mills on the river banks, where slabs are sold for almost nothing. Slabs are the outer slices off of big logs, you know, before the boards are cut. And many a good shanty has been built out of slabs, at a cost of about half a dollar and a little work. Then a young fellow with a bit of land has a home of his own, Scotty, and is independent of the world, and can always have plenty. Why the ground is full of corn and cotton, and the rivers are full of fish, and the woods are full of wild turkeys, and the river bars are full of oysters. Never give up, Scotty, my boy, while dear old North Carolina is within a thousand miles of here, to give you a chance in life. Many a poor boy has started there without capital, and now has his bank account and his home and cotton bales. So, cheer up, Scotty, my boy, cheer up !'' " Thank you, sir !" Scotty exclaimed, taking off his 20 PINE BIDGE PLANTATION. hat, as Hunt tightened the reins. " Thank you very much for telling me about such a place. I did not know there was any place in the world where a fellow could get out of this dreadful grind of working always to make other people rich.'' "Why, to be sure there is, Scotty," the colonel laughed, "and North Carolina is the place. Not only my State, understand, — though, of course, I think of that first, — but all that region there in the Middle South, where land is cheap and Nature is kind. No man can starve down there, Scotty ; and if he works hard he has the benefit of his own labor. It is no place for drones, but an industrious young man down there can soon make himself independent. It is worth your thinking about, Scotty.'' " Thank you, sir !" Scotty repeated, again taking off his hat. " If I knew as much about farming as you do. Hunt, I should be down in this gentleman's country in short order, I tell you." . "I should like to be down there myself," Hunt called back, as he started up the mare and Scotty turned away. " That's an evidence of your good sense, my boy," the colonel said to Hunt, when they were under way. " I suppose you try to look forward sometimes to see what you are coming to. If you do, you can see yourself a farm laborer ten years from now, instead of a farmer's boy, as you are at present. If I can say anything that will help you to be an independent man in ten years, a planter in a small way, growing your COLONEL ANDREWS, OF NORTH CAROLINA. 21 own crops, I shall be glad. You are just the sort of young man to make your way down in my country, I think." " Thank you, sir," Hunt answered. " I have often wished for such a thing, but I do not know how to set about making the start." " Oh, you have ! have you ?" the colonel exclaimed. "Then it is a good morning's work that you have been put into this buggy with me, for I can tell you how to make the start. So head the mare for home, my boy, but let her take her time, to give me a chance to tell you a thing or two." " The first thing for you or any other young man to do is to save a little money," the colonel continued. " Save your wages, raise a colt if your boss will let you, raise some pigs, and do odd jobs for the neigh- bors when you can." " I have a little money now, sir," Hunt frankly admitted. " It is only a little, of course. My father left me one hundred and fifty dollars, and I have saved twenty-five dollars, and Mr. Warren is keeping the one hundred and seventy-five dollars for me." " Then the way for you to start is as clear as a pane of glass !" the colonel cried, clapping Hunt upon the shoulder. " If you have as much grit as I think you have, you can be at work on your own little farm before this time next year. Since you have a little money for your first expenses, there is nothing to hinder you. First make your way to New York, and there buy your ticket right through to New Bern, 22 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. North Carolina. When you get to New Bern, go right straight to Burrus & Gray, cotton brokers and grain and hay dealers, and tell Mr. Burrus that Colonel Andrews sent you to him. Tell him I told you to ask about a little cotton patch over on Brice Creek. He will treat you well, and he knows that country. In a few days after you get your land you will have your own little shanty up, and then you will be at home. Why, I shall be out there some day to eat dinner with you, my boy. And you will have two friends down in that country ; one will be Mr. Burrus and the other will be Colonel Andrews. So there are the plans laid for you, my boy, if you really have the pluck to start in and make a man of yourself." "But my sister, sir?'' Hunt asked. "I have a sister a year younger than myself, working for a farmer near Mr. Warren's, and I cannot desert her." " Of course, you cannot desert her !" the colonel re- torted. " But you can go ahead to make a home for her, and in a few months she can be keeping house for you on the shore of the river Trent. Why, you are a lucky boy, to have a little nest egg of money and a sister. But when you go, my boy, as I believe you will, do everything honestly and fairly, and ask Mr. Warren's advice and permission. No running away, you know, for that makes a bad beginning." " Oh, I shall not run away, sir, and I am sure Mr. Warren will be my friend. But my head is very full of a little farm of my own, sir, and working for my- self." COLONEL ANDREWS, OF NORTH CAROLINA. 23 Before many hours had passed the " chores " on the Warren farm had been done, and Mr. Warren and the colonel had been long in consultation in the sitting- room, and Hunt had been sent for, and Mr. Warren had expressed his willingness to let his boy sally forth to make a start for himself. " Then that matter is settled, sir,'' Hunt answered, looking at both Mr. Warren and the colonel, " and I am going to North Carolina.'' " Good boy !" the colonel exclaimed. " Down there you will make a man of yourself, I am sure. And here is some one who says she is going to help you to establish a home. Come here, little one, and tell your brother what you have been telling me." Much to Hunt's surprise, his sister stepped timidly forward from a corner at this summons, for she had been sent to the Warren farm on an errand. " Indeed, Hunt, I will do my share of the work, if you will let me," she declared ; and her eyes sparkled with pleasure at the very idea of their having a home of their own. " Well, Mary, it shall be a home for us both, if I can manage to get one," Hunt answered. " I am going to make a push for independence, Mary, but it is for independence for us both." "And it is with my approval, Mary," Mr. Warren assured her, after a moment, for the little girl seemed rather alarmed. " And I think your brother is going to make a man of himself," he added. 24 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. " I am sure of it," the colonel echoed. " You have a good brother, little one, and he is on the right track now to make a home for you both. So your name is Mary, is it ? I want you to keep this silver dollar for me, Mary, till I meet you on your brother's farm in North Carolina.'^ CHAPTER III. HUNT BECOMES A NORTH CAEOLINIAN. When the steamboat Neuse drew up to her wharf at the foot of Craven Street, in New Bern, and Hunt stepped ashore, he found himself practically in a new world. Instead of the bales of hay that he had been accustomed to see about him, the bales here were bales of cotton, and they were so many that they littered the platforms and almost blocked the way. Instead of the farmers and farmer's boys to be seen on the railway platforms of Ontario County, the people on the wharf were nearly all black. A few white pas- sengers landed, like himself, from the boat, but they were soon lost in the crowd of blacks, and disappeared. " Then this is what I have to buck against in the South," he said to himself, as, in making his way to the exit to the street, he looked wonderingly at the assembly of negroes. " These fellows all have muscle for sale, and most of them, no doubt, have as much of it as I have. I must try to mix some brain with my muscle, for that's what counts.'' " Transfer, sah ? Right this way, sah, all ready to start." Every man in the crowd seemed to be a hackman, and to call his hack a transfer. 25 26 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. " No, I am going to walk," he told each of them ; for the few dollars left in his pocket warranted no extravagance, and he pushed through to the street, where, almost directly across the way, he was de- lighted to see the name of " Burrus & Gray " upon a large sign surmounting a brick building. But, being something of a traveller by this time, he wisely con- cluded that a business firm would be busy immediately after the arrival of the boat, and that he had better have a tramp about the town before calling. With this idea he crossed the street and started inland at a brisk pace, and as he passed the Burrus & Gray build- ing his progress was stopped by a rapping upon the window. Looking in, he saw a kindly faced gentle- man leaning back comfortably in an arm chair, smoking a long-stemmed pipe, and beckoning him in. Wondering much at this, he stopped and entered the office, in which were several chairs and desks. " Are you Hunt Robertson, my boy ?'' the gentle- man with the pipe asked. " Yes, sir !" Hunt replied, taking off his hat in great wonderment. "Ah, I thought you might be," the gentlem-an con- tinued, " for a letter from Colonel Andrews this morn- ing told me you were coming. I am Mr. Burrus, and I just called you in to make you feel a little at home here, for we like to show some little attention to strangers. Quite a ways from Central New York you are, but you will find plenty of good-hearted people down here. Did you come all the way by HUNT BECOMES A NORTH CAROLINIAN. 27 water?'' he asked, with another pull at the long- stemmed pipe. " Yes, sir/' Hunt answered ; " nearly every step of the way from the farm, for I walked over to Lyons and made my way down to New York on the canal, because that was so much cheaper than the cars. Then I bought my ticket through to New Bern, sir, and the big steamship that made me sick carried me to Norfolk, and there they put me in the cars, and then in the steamboat Neuse, sir, that brought me across Albemarle Sound and Pamlico Sound, sir, and we got here a few minutes ago, sir." " You did perfectly right. Hunt," Mr. Burrus de- clared, " and now we'll soon make a North Carolinian of you down here, and a cotton planter, too, I hope, for Colonel Andrews tells me that is what you have in view. Go out and see our city, now you're in it, but be sure to be back here by four or five o'clock, and I'll help you make your plans for the night." " Thank you, sir ; I'll be back in time, sir," Hunt answered, turning to the door. He was hardly out- side before he was surrounded by a group of colored men, so sprinkled with loose cotton that he thought they must have been rolling in it, for he could not know that they were Burrus & Gray's porters just returned from their work in the gin house, where loose cotton flies like snowflakes ; but they were very civil and polite, and every one of them bade him " Mawnin', sah ;" " Mawnin', sah." He started toward the next street, and just as he reached the corner he 28 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. had to stop to make way for a very old and very black woman, clad in rags, with a few sticks of wood on one arm and some long, straggling gray hairs on her chin, who held out her hand beseechingly to him. " Mawnin', boss," she greeted him ; " gimme a penny ? Please gimme a penny, boss ? I'll let you kiss me if you give me a penny." " Poor soul," he said to himself, seeing at once that she had lost her mind, " I guess she needs it worse than I do !" and handing her the penny he turned the corner, and found himself in a few moments at the point formed by the junction of the Neuse and Trent Rivers, where several abandoned old steamboats lay on the shore, and some trim steam launches and yachts were anchored in the stream. Turning here to the left he was in East Front Street, with the beautiful Neuse River on his right. " Why, it's as large as the Hudson River at New York !" he said to himself, " with big steamboats going up and down, and no end of sailing craft, and that handsome white steamer up above there must be the Revenue Cutter IVe heard them speak of." " Mawnin', sah !" This came from an intelligent- looking black man, who took oflP his hat and evidently desired to stop and talk. '' Strangah, heah, sah ?" "Just got here this morning," Hunt answered. " I wish you would tell me whether all the people in this place are colored ? It seems to me I don't meet any but colored people in the streets." " No, sah ; not quite all," the man answered, adding HUNT BECOMES A NORTH CAROLINIAN. 29 a merry yah, yah, yah. " Dey's nine t'ousan' people in New Bern, sah, an' six t'ousan' of 'em's brack ; so w'en you meets t'ree people in de street, two of 'em's boun' to be brack. Got a little baccy 'bout you, boss ?" Hunt had no tobacco, so he started along, but the man stopped him with an exclamation. " You see dat big brick house ober dar, boss ?" he asked, nodding his head toward a very gloomy and dismal old brick house on the river bank. " Dat de Ashclark house, boss. Reckon yo' done heerd tell o' Ashclark, fer he was a great pirate in dese parts, long time ago. He de man w'at drownded his two darters down to Beaufort, so dey does say, an' married an Eyetalian woman, an' like to git he's neck stretch in prison if Massa Grant hadn't a done pardon 'im, boss. Dat was soon awftah Massa Linkum done make us all free, bless de Lawd." Hunt continued his Avalk up the river side as far as the Neuse River bridge, a mile and a quarter long, a wooden bridge with an iron draw near the centre ; and beyond the bridge he saw a long line of saw mills and factories ; but as his errand was to see the town he turned here to the left and took a cross-street inland. There were many fine old mansions, he no- ticed, some of wood and some of brick ; but in a few minutes he was in a maze of narrow streets lined with shanties, whose occupants were evidently the colored people, and the occupants were much in evidence in the doorways, in the windows, and leaning in the sun 30 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. against the fences ; nearly every one of them greeting him with a cheerful " Mawnin^, boss." These long streets of shanties interested him more than the finer houses, for he hoped before long to make an experiment of his own in shanty architecture. " I never saw anything like this/' he admitted to himself, " nor imagined such a thing. If this is the way the Southern negroes live, I don't wonder that they're poor. I wouldn't leave a cow shed the way they are satisfied to keep these shanties. Some of them have had paint on them long ago, and some have had whitewash, but it's always gone. The chimneys are what take my eye." " Chimleys, sah ?" said a voice close to his ear, belonging to a very black man, who leaned against the fence. "Yes, we all has chimleys, sah. Some people's so shif'less dey's satisfied wid a little fiah in de back yaad ; but in New Bern we all does have chimleys, sah." It gave Hunt a start to find that in his interest in the subject he had put his thoughts into spoken words, and the man had heard them. " Won' you step in, boss, if you's a strangah in dese parts?" the man went on ; and Hunt accepted his invitation. " It's the queer way you build your chimneys down here I was thinking of," he said, after the man had shown his little premises with some pride " Why, they're all built outside, up against the ends of the houses, and generally lean away from the house, and — why, I declare they're built of wood. I should HUNT BECOMES A NORTH CAROLINIAN. 31 think they woiikl catch fire, when they don't fall clown. There's one in the next yard that has fallen down, and broken all to pieces/' " No, sah ; dey don' take fiah, sah," the man ex- plained. " Ain' dat de way you does build chimleys up No'th ?" " What, of wood ?" Hunt answered. " No, sir ; we use bricks or stone up North." ^^ Dey ain' no stones in No'th Ca'line, boss," the man explained, '^ 's fur as I've seed, an' poor niggah he can't afford to buy bricks, so he use sticks an' clay, an' it make berry good chimley, sah." " No doubt it answers the purpose," Hunt agreed, " but I should think you'd have some dreadful fires here. Why, this street of cabins must be a mile long, and they're not only set up one after another, but more cabins put in the back yards, and more back of those, and more and more wherever there's a foot of room, till every foot is covered. But I don't see why you don't straighten up the fallen chimneys, anyhow, and replace the broken glass in the windows, and put new hinges to the doors and shutters. Why, every- thing seems to be falling to pieces." '^Dat jest how it is, boss," the man answered; "■ ebryt'ing done fall ter pieces. Pore niggah, he don' have no time ter fix up, boss. We ain' lak you w'ite folks up No'th, boss." Street after street of these one-story and apparently one-room cabins Hunt walked through, meeting great civility everywhere, and seeing poverty and shiftless- 32 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION, ness without end. Walls were tottering, chimneys foiling, fences leaning, and a majority of the windows were sashless. But the people, unkempt as they were, were as merry as they were black, and ever ready for a laugh. " Tin Cup Alley '^ he read on a sign at one of the corners, and there he turned off, thinking it time to change his surroundings. " Good morning,^' said a white gentleman whom he soon met, and politely touched his hat ; " been having a look at Blackville?^' "Good morning," said the druggist, whose store he soon afterward passed in Middle Street. " Are you a stranger in New Bern ? I hope you'll go out and see the City Cemetery, and the National Cemetery, Avhere the soldiers are buried. Do you know anyone in New Bern ?'' " I know Mr. Burrus, sir,'' Hunt answered. " Then you know a good man, and you're all right," the druggist said. " My name is Davis. Don't hesitate to come to me when you want to find out anything. Live far away from here ?" " I live more than a thousand miles from here, sir," Hunt answered ; " but everyone is so polite and obliging in New Bern it makes me feel as if I had always lived here, sir." In continuing his walk through the business streets he passed a very large brick building that he was told was the Court House, and another, even handsomer, that he learned was the Post Office. After a time he found himself at the end of another long wooden HUNT BECOMES A NORTH CAROLINIAN. 33 l)riclge, which a colored man whom he encountered told him was the Trent River bridge, leading over to James City. The Trent, he said, was a little more than half as wide as the Neuse, and he crossed the bridge to have a look at James City, which, as he was told, contained nearly three thousand inhabitants, everyone colored, and all living in cabins in narrow alleys. " More and more of them !" he said to himself, as he passed cabin after cabin. " Wages must be very low down here, with all this labor unemployed, so it's a good thing I am going to work for myself. But all these colored people manage to live, so I guess I can." When he recrossed the bridge to New Bern he saw by a clock in a jeweler's window that it was nearly four, and he turned toward the office of Burrus & Gray. " Well, what do you think of New Bern ?" Mr. Burrus asked him, when he entered the office. " I think it is a very fine place, sir," Hunt answered. " But I never saw so many colored people in my life, and I am afraid that where there is work to do they will get it and leave me without, for I want to earn a little money as I go along." " Don't worry your mind about the colored people," Mr. Burrus laughed ; " they are not looking very hard for work. To tell the truth, good labor is hard to get here, and if you have come down determined to work you will make your way all right. Got any money ?" Hunt's first impulse was to reply that Mr. Warren had paid him thirty dollars out of his little hoard, and 34 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. that having spent about ten dollars for travelling ex- penses, he still had twenty dollars left, with the privi- lege of writing to Mr. Warren for more, if necessary ; but on second thought it seemed wiser not to go into these details, so he answered : " A little, sir ; ])ut I want to earn enough to pay my way from the start, if I can, and save a little, if possible, for I am only a poor boy, sir." " That's the talk !'' Mr. Burrus exclaimed ; ^^ we want intelligent labor here, and I want some of it myself. Go up to my house, in East Front Street, facing the Neuse River (anyone will show you where it is), and go through into the back yard, where you will find a little house that has a room in one end stored half-full of furniture, and a woodshed in the other end. Back of the woodshed is a pile of fire- wood. If you want to earn your board and lodging till you get acquainted, split up the wood and pile it nicely in the shed, and you can sleep on some of the furniture. Between times you can deliver orders from the store for me ; and as you will want some solid cash, my son will give you work in the cotton-gin house." In this way Hunt passed his first two weeks in New Bern, splitting w^ood, delivering goods, and working about the wonderful cotton gin, where he took his first lessons in the handling of cotton. In that time he had earned ten dollars, without spending any of his own money. Meanwhile his eyes and ears had been wide open, and he had had some useful talks UUJST BECOMES A NORTH CAROLINIAN. 35 with Mr. Burrus about his desire to set up for a small planter. So it did not surprise him Avhen, on enter- ing the office one morning, he was greeted with : " Well, Hunt, you have only to say the word now, and you are a land owner. That fellow over on Brice Creek is willing to sell the five-acre patch for ten dol- lars. My friend. Lawyer Pearsall, has examined the title for me, and it is all right. It is wild land, of course, with some timber on it, and not extra good, at that price, but you can bring it up with hard work. The owner needs the money, and I think it is a bargain at ten dollars. You'd better go out and ex- amine it yourself to-morrow morning — walk right out through James City. Then, if you say the word, the deed is done and you are a North Carolina land owner, for I owe you exactly ten dollars. Five acres is a small farm, but it's enough for a beginning.'' " Thank you very much, sir !'^ Hunt replied. " I will examine it carefully to-morrow, and see about my house, for my idea is to have a little house to live in as soon as possible, if I get the land." " That you must have," Mr. Burrus told him, " and the sooner the better, and be sure to put a fireplace in it, for the cold days of winter will soon be upon us. We are in the ^ Sunny South,' but we need fires on cold winter days — no such cold as you have up in Ontario County, of course, but enough to make you shiver." Hunt set out bright and early the next morning, crossing the bridge to James City, and thence striking 36 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. off toward Brice Creek, which he crossed on another bridge, as he had been told to do. The six miles seemed short to him, for he was well pleased with the appearance of the country, and he knew that a con- siderable distance from the city was one of the penal- ties that he must pay for buying cheap land. " Here we are," he said to himself, when he reached the five-acre "patch,'' which he had visited before. " From the great pine tree to the bluff by the creek, thence following the creek to the big water oak, then inland to the old elm with the limb broken off, and then back to the pine. Why, I get quite a lot of timber if I buy this, not large timber, but good for firewood, and that means a lot of clearing to be done." " Hello, here ! young man !" a voice called to him, and there sat Mr. Burrus in a buggy, with a white man beside him." You beat me here after all, didn't you ? This is Mr. Brock, Hunt, who owns the land. I brought him up so you could do business with him, and to save you the long walk back to town." " Thank you very much, sir !" Hunt exclaimed ; and in five minutes the three were walking over the land, Hunt examining it carefully. " Yes, it's sandy, of course," Mr. Burrus admitted. "All the land hereabouts is sandy. But look at this bluff along the creek ! isn't that a fine situation ? And here is water in plenty in the creek, for your own use or your animals. By clearing this land up you can make it just as good as you like, my friend, and I don't know a better place for a young man to start." HUNT BECOMES A NORTH CAROLINIAN 37 Hunt was more than satisfied with the place, for he saw what he could make of it ; and the money was soon paid and the agreement drawn and signed that made the land his own. "Now, we are square, Hunt/' Mr. Burrus told him, "for I have paid the ten dollars I owed you, and you are a North Carolina land owner. Good luck to you, my boy. Here's a hatchet and saw that I brought you in the buggy, for you will need them when you come to build your shanty. For to-night and a few more nights till you get something up, the people in any of these cabins w^ill give you a lodging for a small consideration " — and he nodded his head toward the three or four cabins in sight. " They are all colored people, of course, but that is no matter. That large house near the river belongs to Mr. Vin- cent, a white man, and you will find him a good neighbor. Now, good day, Mr. Planter." So saying he drove away, taking Mr. Brock with him, but leaving the hatchet and saw behind. Hunt felt at least a foot taller as he walked over his own land, examining his OAvn trees and his own soil. " So far my object is accomplished," he said to him- self, " for I have my little place. Now to make the little place give me bread and butter ; but that will be a work of time." " Good evening, sir," said a voice behind him, and turning quickly he saw a white man. " I hear you have bought this five-acre patch," the gentleman con- 38 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. tinned, '^ and are going to put up a cabin. My name is Vincent, and that is my house over yonder by the river. I bid you welcome to Brice Creek, young man, and I shall expect to see you at my house every night till you have a place of your own to sleep in. You'll always find a slice of bacon there, and occa- sionally a baked potato." " Thank you very much, sir !" Hunt exclaimed. " I am glad that I have come among such kind people to live, sir.'' When he looked up again Mr. Vincent was gone, but he continued his examination of the trees, and sat down upon one of his own logs to rest. At last he owned a bit of land, and the task of converting it into a farm lay before him. " To be sure, it is no great feat to buy a little tract of land," he said to himself, " Avhen you have the money. But I have earned the money to buy this since I came here, and I still have my twenty dollars in my pocket. Such a fine bluff along the creek," he continued his silent talk, "and so green w^th the big and little pines. That will help me give a name to the place, after I make it worthy to have a name." CHAPTER ly. A MODEST HOME IN THE SUNNY SOUTH. Ten days after his purchase of the land, and after the deed had been prepared and filed, Hunt stepped out of his own cabin and leaned a stick against the door to hold it open, returning then to the fireplace that he had built with his own hands, where he was making a fire to test the draught of the chimney that he had also built. As he bent over the fireplace, a few minutes later, a slight noise in the doorway attracted his attention, and turning quickly he saw there a genial-looking gentleman with gray hair and a gray beard, his smiling face reddened by exposure to the North Carolina sun. Hunt instantly straightened up and stepped toward his visitor. " Hello, here, young man, and is this where you live ?" the newcomer asked. " Why you have quite a house here, I declare,'^ he continued ; " didn't build it all yourself, did you ?" ^^ Yes, sir," Hunt answered, with a touch of par- donable pride in his voice. " I bought the land a few days ago, and set right to work to build a place to live in.'' " You don't say so !" the visitor exclaimed. ^^ My 39 40 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. friend Burrus told me about you, and said you were going to put up some sort of a shanty, but I had no idea you could build as good a little house as this. Why, you^ll be just as snug here as if you had a brick mansion, and less taxes to pay. And you've got one of these chimneys built of sticks and clay, too. That must have bothered you to build, if you did it your- self, for you don't have chimneys like that in your country, I guess. You're a New York boy, I hear." " Yes, sir, I am from Central New York State," Hunt answered, " and I was a little afraid about the wooden chimney at first, for fear it might set fire to the house. But I examined such chimneys on other houses, sir, to see how to build one, because I wanted to have everything in regular North Carolina style. It was not hard to build, sir, and it is so well daubed with clay both inside and out that there does not seem to be any danger, sir." " Well see here, you're a good deal of a genius, it seems to me !" the gentleman said, with a smile. "And I see you have a little lean-to at the back of the house to store your firewood in and keep it from the weather. That looks like industry and thrift, young man, and I guess you are going to make your way, over here." " I am going to try my best, sir," Hunt declared. "And a good big fireplace, too, well daubed Avith clay like the chimney," the visitor exclaimed, as he stepped up and examined it. " Is that your own invention too ?" A MODEST HOME IN THE SUNNY SOUTH. 41 " Yes, sir," Hunt replied. " I was going to build it of stones, sir, but I could not find a stone as big as my fist on the place." "Not much like the New York land, eh?" the gentleman asked. "No, sir, but I had to have a fireplace," Hunt went on, " so I made use of slabs, and filled it in with about a foot of sand, and daubed the sides thick with clay, sir, like the chimney, and it works very well, sir. I was just trying the draught when you came, and I find that the chimney draws finely, sir." " Yes, but that is ^ light wood ' you are burning, and ^ light wood' would burn in an iron pot," the gentleman said ; " I suppose you know the difference between ^ light wood ' and other pine, by this time ?" " Oh, my yes, sir," Hunt answered. " I have a good stock of light wood laid in ready for use, both here in the corner and in the lean-to. That is what we call ^ fat pine ' in the North, the heart or knots of a pine tree, very full of resin and turpentine, and I split a lot of it because it is my light at night as well as my fuel by day, sir. It looks very cheerful and homelike in here at night, sii', when I have the doors and shutters hooked, and a good fire of light wood burning on the hearth. Why, it makes the room so light that I can see to read by it, sir." "Ay, I'll warrant you can," the visitor exclaimed, as he stepped up closer to the fireplace and warmed his fingers ; " light wood is fine stuff, my boy, for a (]|^uick fire or a bright blaze. Some day you will have 42 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. candles or a lamp, I suppose, and then you'll not need to build up a fire." " The light wood gives me all the light I need, sir/' Hunt asserted, " and it's cheaper than candles or lamp. I hear that some of the richest farmers over in Hyde County never have either candles or lamps in their houses, but always use light wood for lights, because that is cheaper." " So they do, my boy," the gentleman said, with a laugh. '^ I was over there a short time ago, and they were going to send me to bed by the light of a light wood fire ; but they'd forgotten to have any light wood, so I went to bed in the dark. There is not a mile of railroad in that county, I suppose you know. But of course you know it," he continued. ^' You are picking up the North Carolina ways very rapidly. I'd like to see you here some evening when your house is all bright with the light wood fire." ^^ 'Sense me, gemmen," a very black young woman in a tattered calico dress broke in before Hunt could answer his visitor's last remark, she having walked in noiselessly mthout the formality of knocking at the door. " 'Sense me, but I come to see wedder de young gemman done got some washin' he like fer me to do fer him ?" The most noticeable thing about her was a small brown stick Avhich protruded several inches from her mouth, and which she chewed upon constantly, and removed from her mouth several times while talking. On these occasions the mouth end of the stick was seen to be chewed into a sort of brush, A MODEST HOME IN THE SUNNY SOUTH. 43 or " mop," as it is locally called ; and each time she removed the stick from her mouth she took a tin tobacco box from her pocket and opened it, and dipped the " mop '' into the brown powder it contained, and rolled it about in the powder, returning the stick again to her mouth and chewing it again with great gusto, as if it were some choice morsel. " What's that you've got in your mouth, Dinah ?" the white gentleman asked. " Dat my toofe brush, sah,'' the girl answered, add- ing a loud ^' yah, yah, yah," and rubbing the " mop " against her teeth as if it had been indeed a tooth brush. "No, I don't have much washing to do," Hunt told her, " and when I have any soiled clothes to be washed, I take them down to the creek and wash them myself." " That is a North Carolina custom that I think I shall not soon learn," he continued, turning to his visitor, after the woman had gone out. " She w^as Mipping snuff,' as they call it, sir. She chews the end of the stick till it is like a brush, and then dips it into the tobacco box, which is half full of snuff. It is the dirtiest form of chewing tobacco, but most all the colored women do it, sir." " So you do your ow^n washing, do you ?" the visitor asked. " No reason why you shouldn't, and ironing too, and of course your own cooking. I see you have hooks on your shutter and door, and I noticed a good stout staple and hasp on the outside of the door when I came in, so you can lock everything up tight when 44 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. you go away for the day, as you must do sometimes. That's a good plan." '■^ Yes, sir,'' Hunt assented ; " they say it isn't neces- sary to lock a door in this country, but I should hardly feel safe to go away and leave everything standing open, and I must go away sometimes, because I want to go to work whenever I can, to earn some money, sir." " Well, you're quite a carpenter," the visitor said, stepping up to the open door. " I see you have used plenty of slabs in building the house, and some good boards for your doors and shutters and other things. Floated your lumber down the creek from one of the saw mills, I suppose?" " No, sir," Hunt replied ; " I was going to make a little raft of it and float it down, sir, but I found that would make it so wet that I could not well work it, so I got a colored man with an ox cart to haul me two good loads, sir. I used mostly slabs, sir, because they are cheaper. The walls and roof are all slabs, but they are very tight, sir, and I am sure they can- not leak. I used good boards for the floor, sir, and of course I had to use them for the door and shutters and shelves, and — " "What's this, shelves?" the visitor exclaimed, stepping in toward the fireplace again. " Yes, here you have some shelves, on both sides of the chimney, as sure as the world. They'll come very handy to you when you go to housekeeping ; and here are nails in the wall to hang your clothes on. Why, you're just as complete as possible. But here, what's this A MODEST HOME IN THE SUNNY SOUTH. 45 thing ?'^ he coDtinued, turning to a little platform of boards in one corner of the room, raised about two feet above the floor, and supported at the free end by a joist on legs. " This is too low for a table, what is it for r' " That is my bed, sir," Hunt answered, with some pride, as he stepped up to it. " My Hyde County bed, I call it, because I hear they use a great many of this kind over there. It is a very comfortable bed, too, sir," he went on. " You see it is made of three wide boards each seven or eight feet long, sir. This cleat nailed to the wall holds one end of the boards secure, and the other end rests on the joist. As there is nothing under the middle, sir, they are springy, of course, and very comfortable. You'd be surprised to see how comfortable it is, sir." " Well that's an idea, to be sure !" the gentleman exclaimed as he sat down on the boards and threw himself back, thus testing both their strength and springiness, for his weight was considerable. " So this is a Hyde County bed, is it?" he continued, jouncing himself up and down. " It's a good bed, I'll warrant you. But I have become so interested in your house that I am wasting the day, and I came over here on a little matter of business. My name is Chatfield, and I am from the North too, though I have been spending the winter in New Bern. What is your name, my boy ?" "Huntley Robertson, sir," Hunt answered, "and people generally call me Hunt." 46 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION, " Wellj come outside here and look at my boat, Hunt, down in the creek. I brought her over because as soon as I heard about you I thought you would need a boat to go to New Bern in, and maybe I could sell her to you.^' Both outside now, they walked down to the bluif, Avhence the boat could be seen tied to the shore below. " Look at that, Hunt !'' Mr. Chatfield exclaimed, pointing toward the pure white boat. " Isn't she a beauty ? You cannot see her stern as she lies, but her name is the Maria Louise, and she's just the sort of boat you need, to carry stuff to and from the city. I made a sort of a trade with a man in New Bern, so she didn't cost me very much, and I can sell her to you for seven dollars, boat, sail, anchor, cable, cushions, and all. Don't you think you would like to have such a boat as that ?" "Yes, sir, I should like it very much indeed," Hunt replied. " But there are many things I should like, and I have to be very careful of my money, so I must ask you to give me a little time to think about it before I give you a definite answer, sir." "All the time you want, my boy," Mr. Chatfield answered, patting him kindly on the shoulder. " I'll tell you what I'll do, Hunt," he went on. " I'll come over here again to see you to-morrow, so you can take all night to think it over. But I want you to show me the rest of that fine little house of yours before I leave you to-day." Hunt was more than willing to show the comforts A MODEST HOME IN THE SUNNY SOUTH. 47 of his cabin, and they were soon back in the main room. " What's this !" Mr. Chatfield exclaimed, as he threw open an inner door near the foot of the bed. "Another room back here?" " Yes, sir," Hunt answered, " I had to have two rooms, because my sister is coming down as soon as I get well started. There is another bed, just like mine," he continued, " in her room, and some shelves for her. But I can sleep in this other room, which will be our kitchen and living room. There are two windows in her room, sir, and one mndow and the door in the other room. I could not quite manage glass windows, sir, but these are good tight shutters." " You have done nobly. Hunt," Mr. Chatfield de- clared. " Now you need a frying-pan and a coffee pot and some provisions in your kitchen, and you will have a jolly little home." " Yes, sir, I intend to get those things next time I go over to New Bern," Hunt replied. " Well, look for me to-morrow," Mr. Chatfield said, taking him by the hand ; and in a moment his visitor was gone. Although the November days were growing shorter there was still an interval of daylight after Hunt was left alone, and he went out and gathered up some more firewood that he had cut, for he knew by the chill feel of the air that he should need a fire for warmth that evening, and the wood in the lean-to was designed for use in winter, and must not be 48 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. encroached upon except when necessary. Then, dark- ness having come, he set a few sticks of light wood to blazing on the hearth, and took from his pocket a copy of a Northern daily newspaper that had fallen into his hands in some unexpected way when he was last in New Bern. " Why, really, it^s almost new," he said to himself as he opened it and spread it smoothly over his knees, " it's not much more than a week old, and that answers me just as well down here as if it had been printed this morning. It reminds me, anyhow, that I must have a fresh newspaper here occasionally, and a few books when I can get them, for I don't want to lose track of everything that is happening in the world. A frying-pan and a strip of bacon may be ornaments enough for a Southern negro's cabin, but a white fellow from the North should have the smell of printers' ink in his house when he means to make something of himself." He was soon much interested in an account of an early " cold snap " in Central New York, in which the mercury had fallen several degrees below zero ; and congratulated himself not only upon being in a region where the weather would permit him to con- tinue his " clearing up " of his land through the entire winter, but also upon having a light by which he could easily read the fine print of the daily news- papers, without the expenditure of a cent. Suddenly he became aware of a voice, evidently a man, shouting at no great distance outside, and A MODEST HOME IN THE SUNNY SOUTH. 49 straightening up and listening, he made out a plain " Hello ! Hello in the cabin there !" When he sprang up he laid two more sticks of light wood upon the fire, to renew the light, and then hearing the call repeated nearer and louder, he went to the door and opened it. " Why, Mr. Vincent !" he exclaimed to the gentle- man who was approaching. " I am glad to see you, sir. Step in and warm yourself by the fire." "Yes, I am your neighbor Vincent," the gentle- man replied, as he stepped in and seated himself on the home-made bench that Hunt drew up before the fire for them both. "I reckon you are not quite used yet to our Southern way of going up to a country house at night," the visitor continued. " When you get settled here and have a fence around your door-yard, as no doubt you will have, you will likely keep a dog or two to watch the place, as most people in the country do, and then anyone who comes to see you at night will stand out at the gate and call to you, and the dogs, of course, will set up a howl, and you will go out and call them off and bring the visitor in. That's the way we do in North Carolina, and pretty much all over the South," he continued. " It is not well to walk right up to the door of a country house and knock, as I believe you do in the North, for the dogs are likely to be ugly unless their master is called out." " I am so glad you spoke about the dogs, Mr. Vin- cent/' Hunt hastened to say. "I get a little lone- 4 50 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. some here sometimes, sir, and I have often wished for my dear old Rover and little Buster. Those are my two dogs up in Ontario County, sir, both fine watch dogs ; and I must write to my sister to bring them with her when she comes down." " Yes, you will need dogs," Mr. Vincent assented ; '^ and you will need a great many other things when you get your little farm in operation. You have a good comfortable cabin here, and I am glad to see you so well situated so soon." " I thought you might be a little lonesome here at night, at first, not being used to it," Mr. Vincent con- tinued, stepping up to the fire and rubbing his hands near the blaze, ^^ and I want you to know that you have a neighbor near by. But I came partly on business," he added, "because I saw Mr. Chatfield come up the creek in his boat to-day and tie her below the bluff here, so I thought maybe you might be talk- ing about buying her, and I came over to tell you something about her." "Yes, sir, Mr. Chatfield offered to sell her to me for seven dollars, sir, and I have till to-morrow to make up my mind about it," Hunt replied. " I should like very much to have such a boat, for I think I could make a little money out of it, sir." "Ah, I was sure you had an eye to business if you thought of buying her !" Mr. Vincent said, with a laugh, " for you always look at the business end of a question. Seven dollars, eh? She's a bargain at that price. I know the boat very well, and she's A MODEST HOME IN THE SUNNY SOUTH. 51 worth fifteen dollars if she's worth a cent. Mr. Chat- field got her just for a little sailing and fishing for pleasure, and she's tight as a drum, and newly painted. Just the sort of a boat you are going to need here to carry your stufiT over to New Bern in to sell, when you get anything to carry." " I have something now, sir," Hunt exclaimed. " I can cut a good deal of fireword on this little place, and that sells in New Bern, and I thought perhaps I could carry it over in the boat, sir, and soon make her pay for herself. I am very much obliged to you for coming over to tell me about her, sir." "You have the right idea there, my boy," Mr. Vincent asserted, as he arose and stepped toward the door ; " you need something right now to fetch and carry for you, and the boat will do it. By and by you will need a critter of some sort, because you will have plowing to do, as well as carrying. A mule would cost you fifty dollars at the least, but you can buy an ox for twenty-five, and an ox can do the work. Now good night to you, my boy," he added as he stepped outside, "and a good night's rest on that Hyde County bed I see you have there in the corner." " Good night, sir, and thank you very much for coming in," Hunt answered; and he closed and hooked the door and put several sticks of hard wood on the fire, and was soon in the full enjoyment of the comforts of the Hyde County bed. CHAPTER V. THE CARGO OF THE MARIA LOUISE. The young owner of the cabin on the bluff on Brice Creek had been chopping firewood for several hours, and for some domestic purpose had returned to the house, when he heard a long-drawn-out shout, evidently from a considerable distance away. "Hello-o-o there, in the cabin! Hunt, hello-o-o !" were the words that he made out when he listened carefully ; and opening his door and running out he recognized the voice, though the owner of it was still invisible. " Hello, Mr. Chatfield !" he called in reply ; '' Vm coming, sir !" and, so saying, he ran toward the edge of the bluff, thinking from the sound of the voice that Mr. Chatfield must be below the bluff, on the creek. " Come down here, my boy, I want you to help me carry my bundles,'' the voice resumed when he reached the edge of the bluff, so that he was visible from below, and there sure enough lay the Maria Louise, again tied to the shore, with Mr. Chatfield sitting in the stern. " Yes, sir !'' Hunt called in reply, as he hurried a few steps along the bluff to the path dow^n to the water; "Pm coming, sir!" and as he sprang down 52 THE CARGO OF TEE MARIA LOUISE. 53 the steep incline he noticed that the inside of the boat was painted a delicate light green, and that she sat gracefully upon the water. ^' Why, she has a centreboard, hasn't she ?" he ex- claimed, when he reached the water's edge ; " I didn't notice that yesterday." "To be sure she has," Mr. Chatfieid replied, tugging at the end of a bag that lay in the bottom of the boat and that seemed to be heavy. " I forgot to mention that yesterday, or the two pairs of oars, or the rudder. But she is all complete, and everything goes with her — even this swivel arm-chair in the stern, if you want it." "I'm glad to hear it, sir," Hunt continued, as he took hold of the bow and pulled the boat in with her side to the shore, " for I've concluded to buy her, sir, if you still want to sell her." "All right," Mr. Chatfieid said, "then you'll get a good boat. But 1 want you to help carry my cargo up to the house — these two or three bags and bundles ;" and so saying he lifted up a well-filled cofPee-sack, which Hunt shouldered. "I'll tell you what I'm going to do. Hunt," Mr. Chatfieid continued, reaching for some paper bags in the boat's bottom. "I'm going to make a sort of a picnic around here to-day, and walk over to the bluff on the Neuse, and then walk over and see my friend Vincent, and by that time I'll be tired and hungry, and I've brought some stuiF to eat in these bags so that you can get me up a little supper about dark. 54 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. But liuld on/' he added, as Hunt showed signs of starting, and carefully handed out a large brown pail. *^ Don't slam the pail about," he went on, '' for it has a lot of eggs in it, and some other breakables/' Hunt ran up to the house with the bag and pail, and retnrned for another bag, and then for another, and on the last trip carried up also a large basket, packed full of bundles. " That's all," Mr. Chatfield said, as he stepped out of the boat. "Now you unpack all this stuflP," he continued, when they were both in the house. " I guess you'll find enough here to make a supper for both of us." "Why, here's a ham, sir!" Hunt exclaimed, as he pulled a paper-wrapped lump out of the first bag. " Yes, that's a pig ham from Hyde County," INIr. Chatfield answered, as he seated himself comfortably on the side of the bed. "A pig ham, sir?" Hunt exclaimed; "ain't all hams made of pig, sir?" "No, they're not," Mr. Chatfield laughed. "Most hams are made out of hog, and are tough and coarse. But a pig ham, as they call it down here, is made of a little young pig a few months old ; and you'll find it's as sweet and tender as a turkey." Hunt stepped out and returned in a moment from the lean-to with a home-made table in his hands, for he saw that the contents of the bags and basket would more than fill his shelves. "Why, here's a fine bright frying-pan, with a THE CARGO OF THE MARIA LOUISE. 55 cover r he exclaimed a minute later, holding it up to admire it. "To be sure there is," Mr. Chatfield laughed; "how could you cook our ham to-night without a frying-pan ? Better hang that up on one of the nails, and the coffee-pot too, that you'll find in there some- where." Here the visitor sat up straight on the bed to watch the process of unpacking. " I want to see that they put in everything I paid for," he said. " Yes, that's right. There are some cheap knives and forks and spoons in those little packages, and in the longer pack- age are some kitchen knives and spoons, for cooking with. Better set that square bundle outside in the cool, for that's butter. Be careful of that big paper bag, that's full of corn meal. The other big paper bag is full of wheat flour, and there's another one there somewhere, filled with hominy. Four or five round tins, you say ? That's right, they are condensed milk. Look out for the teakettle in that other bag with the sweet potatoes," he continued. " You'll find a half bushel of them there, and they are prime to lay in the hot ashes and bake." " Careful ! careful !" he exclaimed, as Hunt moved the big basket, and something rattled. " A few plates and dishes in there, my boy, and some cups and saucers. Yes, the bundles are all right ; one is coffee, another is sugar, and there should b^ some pepper and salt and matches. See if there ain't a pile of wooden plates down in the bottom of the basket? 56 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. Yes, they're there, and those tin pans below them are for cooking with. Now look out for the eggs, my boy, or you'll have an omelet before you want it." "Why, there's enough stuff here to stock a big kitchen !'' Hunt exclaimed, as he stepped back and surveyed the shelves and table, all covered with the new treasures. " I'm afraid you'll not be able to eat all this for your supper, sir." " I hope for a good appetite," Mr. Chatfield an- swered, " but if there is anything left, there are more days to come after this, you know, and you must help me out with it. There ought to be a strip of bacon and a slab of fat salt pork in there somewhere." " Yes, sir, here they are !" Hunt cried, taking them out and hanging them up. " If you are going away for the day, sir," he went on, seating himself by his visitor, " perhaps we had better finish up the business about the boat now, for I have made up my mind that I had better buy her, sir. The business was soon finished up and the money paid, and the Maria Louise became Hunt's property. " I think you had better bring all the loose stuff up to the house," Mr. Chatfield advised, " or some of your colored neighbors may take a fancy to the oars, sails, cushions, or arm-chair. You Avill find those things very handy in the house, at any rate, now that they all belong to you." " I will bring them up at once, sir," Hunt replied ; and when Mr. Chatfield started off he went as far as THE CARGO OF THE MARIA LOUISE. 57 the bluff with him, and was soon busy carrying loads to the house. "If he doesn't have a good supper this night," Hunt said to himself w^hen he was again alone in the house, " then I am a poorer cook than I think. He shall have a good comfortable seat, too, for this arm- chair that has had its legs taken out will go nicely on one end of the bench, and one of the cushions shall go on it. But, speaking of cushions, I declare they're stuffed with cotton, and two of them will make beautiful pillows for my Hyde County bed." Inclination would have kept Hunt in the cabin much longer, sorting out the wonderful stock of pro- visions ; but duty called him outside to cut firewood, now that he had a means of taking it over to New Bern for sale, and the hole made in his purse by the purchase of the boat he was eager to patch up, and with him duty was sure to take precedence over incli- nation, so he kept manfully at the wood cutting and cleaving till the deepening twilight warned him that it was time to prepare for the entertainment of his expected guest. " It's getting late," he said to himself as he hooked the door, " but he will be sure to be here. I don't believe that Mr. Chatfield is the man to disappoint me when he said he would come." Though there were no stones on his land, some good genius, probably with a black skin, had left about the half of an old brick there, and this Hunt had picked up and carried in earlier in the day. He 58 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. now opened the longer bundle of knives and spoons ; and taking out a long " butcher " knife with a wooden handle, sharpened it well upon the piece of brick. Before it was too dark to find the path down the bluff he carried the brown pail down to the creek, and took it back full of good clean water. Then he took the dishes out of the basket and arranged them neatly on his shelves, and untied the package containing the knives and forks and spoons for the table, after which he set the table carefully for two, as he well knew how to do from his long practice at it on the Warren farm. These things done, he would have been more than human if he could have resisted the temptation to look once more over the eatables, and consider what he should prepare for his first guest in his own house. Suddenly he slapped one hand loud upon his leg, as if an inspiration had come. " Those ashes are just hot enough to bake a sweet potato nicely,'' he said to himself, " and I'm sure Mr. Chatfield would like one or two, and I'll do one for myself." This done, he filled the new teakettle and stood it over one side of the fire, taking care to lay on two or three small pieces of light- wood to illuminate the room, for night had now come. " Hello Hunt ! Hello in there !" he heard, and then two or three loud thumps upon the door, which he unhooked and threw open, the door almost grazing the outstretched hand of Mr. Chatfield. THE CARGO OF THE MARIA LOUISE. 59 ..J *^ Why, Mr. Chatfield !'' he exclaimerl ; you are late, and I was afraid you were not coming.'' " Oh, I am coming, never fear," the visitor an- swered. " I have had a long hard tramp, and I am tired and hungry. I hope you are a pretty fair cook. Hunt, for I am famishing.'' ^ ^^ Come right in, sir," Hunt replied ; " here is the arm-chair all ready for you, with the cushion in it, and you shall soon have something to eat." " AVell, I declare. Hunt, this looks like living," Mr. Chatfield exclaimed, as he seated himself in the chair, and leaned comfortably back. " * The Hyde County incandescent,' I suppose you must call that light-wood blaze, but it makes a remarkably cheerful light. All we need now is the perfume of some supper cooking, to make this house fit for any king, and much too good for most kings. What are you going to give us to eat, my boy ?" " I thought that some of the pig ham fried and some eggs poached with it would make a very good basis, sir," Hunt answered, "with some coifee, of course, and I have some sw^eet potatoes baked." " That will be capital !" Mr. Chatfield declared ; " but I have made a botch of our banquet after all, for I ought to have brought some crackers or a loaf of bread," he added, giving the broad arm of the chair a hearty slap, " but I forgot all about them." "No matter, sir," said Hunt, as he took up the sharp knife with which he intended to slice the ham, " for it won't take me long to make a pan of ^ spoon 60 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. bread.' That is one of the best of the North Carolina dishes, and I have learned how to make it since I came down. Oh, good !'' he added, " here are several tins of baking-powder. I didn't see these this morn- mg.'' " Then go right ahead, Mr. Cook,'' Mr. Chatfield said, half closing his eyes to rest, " and don't waste any time about it, for I am nearly starved. But first let me hear how you make the ^ spoon bread,' for that is a dish I am very fond of." "It is easily made, sir," Hunt answered, taking from his pocket a small slip of paper upon which he had written the recipe. " I have only to beat up four eggs, beating the whites and yelks separately, and add them to a cup of cooked hominy (I have some cooked hominy left from breakfast, sir), and then take four tablespoonfuls of corn meal, a pint of milk (which I can easily make from condensed milk), and add a tea- spoonful of sugar, the same of salt, and the same of baking-powder, and a tablespoonful of butter, and after mixing, bake it in a covered pan over the hot coals." " Correct, my boy ! Now go ahead !" Mr. Chat- field exclaimed with a start, for he had been snatching forty winks of sleep. Hunt soon had the coffee boiling fragrantly, four slices of the pig ham sputtering in the frying-pan, four eggs poaching to a turn, and the pan of " spoon bread " baking at one side of the fire. " Here we are, sir," he said a few minutes later, as he set the steaming viands upon the table. THE CARGO OF THE 3IARIA LOUISE. 61 "Ah, you are fit to cook for the President, Hunt/' Mr. Chatfield declared, now fully awake. " Turn the table right around, so that you can sit on the bed while I sit in the chair. Now draw up and fall to, my boy, as we say up in New England.'' Hunt first stepped out to bring in the butter, and they were both soon in the full enjoyment of the savory repast. The pig ham was sweet and tender, the coflPee was excellent, and the " spoon bread " good beyond criticism. " Fine as the fare is over at Mr. Burrus's, where I live," Mr. Chatfield declared, " this is the jolliest meal I have eaten in North Carolina." " Thank you, sir," Hunt replied, helping them each to another poached egg and a smoking baked sweet potato. The visitor was blessed with a fine appetite after bis long walk, and his share of everj^thing had disap- peared before he paused for any extended conversation. " Now put a little more light-wood on the fire, and tell me about yourself, my boy, what you intend to do with this place and what you hope for in the future," he said at length. " What I first want is to make a living, sir," Hunt answered, when the fresh light-wood blazed up, and helping himself to more of the "spoon bread" and another cup of coffee. " A living and a home for my sister and myself." " The home you have all right," Mr. Chatfield interrupted, " so tell me about the living." " The living is all right too, sir," Hunt went on, 62 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. " for I am not afraid of work. There is plenty of work about here for anyone who is willing to do it, and I can have work nearly all the time in the cotton- gin house, or in one of the saw-mills, or for Mr. Vin- cent, who has a big truck farm and wants help. Then I have firewood to sell, sir," he continued, " and those things will keep me in ready money till I get my sister down and have some crops for sale. I have five acres of land, you know, sir, so I can raise anyhow two bales of cotton a year, besides some corn for my stock. I must have an ox to plow with, and I want a stock of poultry, and a lot of pigs, and a smoke-house kept full of smoked pork. You see I want to turn this land into a little plantation, sir, and of course I must have a good vegetable garden.'' " Hunt, my boy, you have the right idea !" Mr. Chatfield declared, seizing him by the hand. " In less than five years you will be a prosperous North Carolina planter, my boy, and an independent man. Now I must leave you, for I must walk back to New Bern to-night, tired as I am.'' " Oh, no, sir !" Hunt exclaimed. "It is a beauti- ful moonlight night, and I am going to run you down to the city in the Maria Louise." Mr. Chatfield protested against this, but in a mo- ment Hunt was out of the door with both oars on his shoulders, and his determination carried the day, or the night rather, and the Maria Louise with her two passengers was soon on her way down the river Trent to New Bern under the moonlight. THE CARGO OF THE MARIA LOUISE. 63 When Hunt again reached his home, the sun was shining, and he wrote a lead-pencil draft of a short l)ut important letter that he intended to rewrite and send to his sister. CHAPTER VI. THE "patch" GKADUALLY BECOMES A PLANTA- TION. That letter, carefully written by Hunt with pencil in the early morning, was the one that Mary Robert- son waited long and anxiously for, but she had yet more waiting to do. Sometimes thoughtless people said to her : " Oh, you're not going to hear from your brother. If he has made an opening for himself down South, he will leave you here, where he knows you are in good hands.'' " I shall never be in good hands till I am with him," she answered to such speeches as that, " for he needs me and I need him. I guess you don't know Hunt, if you think he would go away from me and not send for me." " ' Not going to hear from my brother' ! " she once indignantly exclaimed, when such a thing was said to her ; and struggled hard to keep back the tears, and felt doubly hurt, for a little letter from him was at that minute in her pocket — not v the important one, for that was not yet written in ink ; but any letter from her brother was more precious than gold. 64 THE "PATCH" BECOMES A PLANTATION. 65 " Indeed, then, you are very much mistaken, for I heard from him yesterday !" she retorted. " He said so much about dear Kttle Buster that I have begun to save my money to buy a basket or something, to take him down with me, when Hunt sends for me. You know Mr. Warren gave him to both of us, though he has always lived with me, and he is the dearest little doggy in the world. You just ought to have seen him lick my hands and face, and lay his ears back, when I told him Hunt was wishing for him in the new home." " And Rover ?'' she continued. " Rover did be- long to Mr. Warren, of course, but he was given to Hunt long ago, and he knows that he is soon to go to his dear young master. I wish you could have seen that big setter climb into my lap and lay his head on my shoulder and shut his eyes, when I went over to the Warren farm this morning, and told him that Hunt sent his love to him, and said he was a dear old doggy." " Yes, dogs are all the better for a switch some- times !" her mistress snapped ; for it was her mistress to whom she said this. " So are girls," she added, " and you^d better stay at home and attend to your work, miss, or I'll have some business with you." ^' Oh, I am so glad that Hunt is fond of dogs !" Mary replied, rather quickly, determined not to let her mistress see how the sharp words had cut her. '^ For I am fond of them, too, and Hunt and I are chums. Oh, yes, ma'am. Hunt will send for me, if 5 66 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. he is alive.'^ Then her eyes did fill with tears, and she could not help it. Many changes were made on the shore of Brice Creek while Hunt carried that pencil draft of a letter in his pocket, deliberating whether he had better send the letter yet. " I feel as if it was selfish in me to be enjoying this fine little home all by myself, instead of sending at once for Mary," he often said to himself. " And yet it cannot be selfishness," he always con- cluded, '^ because there is nothing I want so much in the world as to have Mary here, and dear old Rover and little Buster. Why, it will be like a new world for me when they come, and I really need them. But I want to have things a little more ready for Mary when she comes." That was the secret of his delay, and all his hard work was a pleasure because it helped him to have things " a little more ready for Mary." In the weeks that followed he had scarcely an idle moment, while late in the fall was changing into the depth of winter. Continuing his almost daily work about the cotton-gin, and in the saw-mill up the creek, and for Mr. Vincent on his truck farm, he still found time to continue the conversion of his "patch " into a small cotton plantation. This meant many days of hard work for him, some of which in January were so cold that his ears and fingers tingled, and once there was a little glaze of ice along the borders of the creek, and one night there was just a suspicion of a flutter THE "PATCH'' BECOMES A PLANTATION. 67 of snow, though nearly every chilly day was followed by a warm and pleasant one ; and no day was wintry enough to hinder his out-door work. The land had to be cleared and made ready for cultivation in the spring, which meant the cutting down of whatever large or small trees stood in the way ; and the wood resulting from this chopping had to be cut to a size suitable for burning, and then had to be taken over to New Bern in the boat and sold, which was a work of time, though often of night time. He soon found that a quarter of a cord was the usual size of a load in the city, and the load best adapted to his boat. For that much wood he could get from sixty to seventy-five cents, ten cents of which he paid to the colored cartman who delivered it, for he could not take the boat up into the streets ; but he went him- self, calling at various houses, and selling the wood and seeing to its delivery, not forgetting to collect the money. This little drain of ten cents a load for the delivery he was presently able to put a stop to, for he became the owner of an ox and cart, and did his own deliv- ering. "An ox ?' the idea of driving a single ox seemed very comical to him, when he learned that Mr. Vin- cent had one for sale, for he had always seen and heard of a yoke of oxen. But he should soon need an ox for plowing with, and with the ox went a good solid cart, and a plow somewhat the worse for wear, but still serviceable. 68 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION, i( He is a good critter, my ox Bob, and very gentle/^ Mr. Vincent told him ; but Hunt had not much faith in the gentleness when Bob chased him through the woods on the day of the purchase. Thirty dollars at any rate was cheap for 'Hhe entire outfit/' as Mr. Vincent called the ox, cart, plow, and harness ; and Bob was the perfection of slowness and delibera- tion when between the shafts. So much work Hunt had done for Mr. Vincent on the truck farm, that he had only five dollars in cash to pay. Dull as he was. Bob was at least a living creature^ and Hunt took great pleasure in his company. His coming, too, made several quick improvements neces- sary, that greatly enhanced the appearance of the " patch.'' On one side, the creek was as sure a pro- tection as any fence could have been, but Hunt soon thought it better to build a substantial fence about the other three sides. The posts he cut from his own timber and set solidly in the ground, and by nailing long slabs from post to post, one at top and one at bottom, he soon had his place securely enclosed. But Bob also required a house, to protect him and his trappings from rain, and his residence, built without delay, was only the first of a home-like collection of out-buildings. " The North Carolina barn is not handsome," Hunt said to himself, " but it is cheap, and easily built.'' The walls were of trunks of small trees and limbs of larger ones, laid one upon another something in the manner of a loosely-built log cabin, and the roof 7^ u. I- o UJ v- -z. ui LU X O CL < U X u CO < CO DC < o Q > X h- TEE ''PATCH'' BECOMES A PLANTATION. 69 was of slabs. Crude as it was, Bob stood very con- tentedly upon its floor of earth. This was only the beginning, however, of many improvements that went far toward taking away the " back lot '' air, and giving the more cheerful appear- ance of a young plantation. With a house for the ox, Hunt set to work to provide one for the stock of poultry tliat he intended to establish. His poultry house required a roof over only a small part of it, and that more for the protec- tion of the coming feed and nests than of the chickens or turkeys. " There will be many a good meal for us," he re- flected, " in the chickens, ducks, and turkeys that I hope to have, and their eggs.'^ But about this time the necessary purchase of more salt pork set him to thinking about larger stock than poultry. " I can't help buying a little pork in the beginning,'' he said, as he sallied forth with his hatchet. " But it would be disgraceful for me to be buying it after I have been here long enough to make a start. Instead of buying it I must have it to sell, and that's what I intend to do ; and to grow pork I must have a pigpen, and here goes for the pigpen. By the next evening a large and substantial pen w^as built for the pigs that had not yet arrived, at a proper distance from the house. Then the next step was to make a '^ door-yard " by erecting a strong and close fence around the house, with one large and one small gate in it, and at a sufiicient distance on all sides 70 PIj^E niDGE PLANTATION. to make room not only for a vegetable garden of generous proportions, but also to give space for another building that he intended to erect. That other building took much of Hunt's atten- tion for several days. When he next went to New Bern with wood he returned with a bottle of ink and other writing materials in his pockets, and with a large pair of strap hinges, a strong hasp and staple, a padlock that looked large enough and strong enough for a jail, and a bundle of nails. It was on account of this other building that he harnessed Bob to the cart, and went to the saw-mill up the creek and returned with a load of slabs and some three-by-four joists. The new building proved to be nearly as large as the original house, but somewhat higher and with no floor but the earth ; and long poles reached across from side to side high up under the roof, about where the ceiling would have been if the plan had included a ceiling, which it did not. " There, nobody can see either in or out, for I have covered every hole and crack," he reflected, as he sur- veyed his nearly finished work. " This table inside will do for my poor convict's bed, and I am sure he cannot get out when I have the big padlock on." But this was only a whimsical fancy of Hunt's, to help keep him merry while he labored ; for his new building was not a jail, but a smoke-house, made strong not to keep people in, but to keep intruders out ; and the strong table inside was to cut and salt the pork upon. THE ''PATCH'' BECOMES A PLANTATION. 71 The smoke-house was completely finished within a week, although its young builder was away for several days, earning a little money on Mr. Vincent's farm. At his first good opportunity he stood upon the bluif, and surveyed his settlement with great satisfaction, counting the little buildings upon his fingers. " There's my house, that's one ;" he counted. " And the smoke-house is two, and Bob's barn is three, and the poultry house is four, and the pigpen is five. None of them likely to start a new style in architecture, I reckon, but all very useful. And my bit of a farm is cleared and fenced, and the house has a good door- yard and a place for a garden. Now what I need next is a woman here to help make home happy ; and the only reason my best girl isn't here is because I haven't sent for her, and I think the time to send for Mary has come, for now I can make her comfort- able, and I am sure she will enjoy being in our own home." The kitchen table was soon cleared off, and the bottle of ink was produced, and some sheets of paper and other materials necessary for the making of a letter. " This is the fifth of February," the young planter said, reflectively, and after making several false starts, for it was harder work for him to write than to chop wood ; " and winter, according to the almanac," he con- tinued, '^ but spring according to to-day's warm sun. And it is a happy day for Hunt Robertson, when he 72 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. can look forward to having Mary here, and good old Rover and Buster, and a good home for them all.'^ " Dear Mary, I want you to come home,'' he wrote, at length. " The home is ready for you, with its five buildings ; none of them very large or handsome, but all my own — and yours. And your brother is more than ready for you, he is anxious for you, dear Mary. " Take this letter over to Mr. Warren's and show it to him, and he will hand you twenty-five dollars on my account, for he is keeping one hundred and forty- five dollars for me. Then go to New York, and buy your ticket right through to New Bern, by steamer. The tAventy-five dollars wall pay your way and some over, and w-hen the boat lands you at New Bern, I will be at a near-by w^harf with my own boat, and yours, to bring you the rest of the w^ay home — think of that, sis, to our own home. You will know our boat when you see her, because she is a beauty, painted white outside and light green inside, and her name is the Maria Louise. " When you see Mr. and Mrs. Warren, please tell them that I send my best respects to them and should like to see them and all my old friends the horses and cows, though I have such a comfortable little home down here that I should not like to leave it. Tell them that I like North Carolina very much, sis, and that as my land is cleared and planting-time is coming, I expect to be a real cotton planter before you have been here three months. I wish you would tell Mr. THE ''PATCH'' BECOMES A PLANTATION. 73 Warren that I have one ox, named Bob, to plow the land with ; and that will make him laugh, but that is the North Carolina way. If he does laugh at my Bob, tell him a much funnier thing is to see a team composed of one cow and one mule. I have seen several such teams, and they draw very well together. " But here's one thing, sis, that I hope you will be sure to remember. The steamships to Norfolk carry dogs free when they are with passengers, so you can bring Rover with a chain, and put little Mr. Buster in a basket or something. Do be sure to bring them both, for I should feel very bad to lose either of them. They will be useful, too, to help watch the place, and always great company. I should like to tell you more about our little home, only I'm afraid you might be disappointed when you see it. But the trees are beginning to look green, dear girl, though it is only February ; and if you are as fond of flowers as you used to be you can begin to start some flower beds soon after you get here. " Now I reckon I have told you everything," he went on, " except how lonesome I have been without you, and how I expect to enjoy having you here. I wish you would mail me a letter from New York the day your steamer sails. As that will come down by rail, I will get it in time to be sure to meet you when you arrive. Remember the name of the boat you are to look for in New Bern, the Maria Louise. She ought to be named the Mary, in your honor, for I expect you to have many a good time fishing and 74 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. sailing in her ; but she already had her name when I bought her. ^' I think you will enjoy it here, sis/' he continued, '^ but it is only fair to warn you that there is plenty of hard work for us both to do. We won't mind that, though, as it will be working for ourselves. I work out by the day as much as I can, to earn some ready money till I g^i well started, but that is nothing when I come back at night to my own home. Without boasting, I am more than satisfied with the way things have gone so far, and every year our work will make our place worth more and more. We have something to look forward to now, sis, and if you are hungry when you land in New Bern you can look forward to having a pan of spoon bread and a slice of pig ham for your dinner. I reckon you never heard of those things, but you will soon learn to like them in No'th Ca'line. Here's Bob bellowing out to me to send his love to you ; though maybe he is asking me to bring his dinner, but he is a fine old fellow, and I respect him more and more every day. He will have an important share in producing our first bale of cotton, and you will not be here long before you will see the seed go into the ground. Tliat will be a great sight for you, but not nearly equal to seeing the fleecy stuff in the bolls ready for picking. What I most want to see is our first crop on its way over to the gin house. " Do you knoAV why I think so much about having our cotton planted and harvested, little 'un ? Because that is where the bulk of our money is to come from. THE ''PATCH'' BECOMES A PLANTATION. 75 You will soon learn that it is the cotton that produces cash. Our plantation will insure plenty always to eat, but we must have cotton to bring us money. However, sis, don't you mind about money, for you'll not need much of it here. Just you remember to bring Rover and Buster to help us keep what crops nature gives us, and write me before you sail, and keep an eye open for your big brother in New Bern with the Maria Louise. I send you my love, sis dear, and hope soon to have you here in your own room, which has a real Hyde County bed in it. You don't know yet what that is, but a Hyde County bed and a pig ham are two of the sweetest things in life. " Now don't you disappoint me, sis, and don't forget Rover and Buster." " Why, you must be writing a letter to your girl !" a hearty voice and a footstep upon the floor inter- rupted Hunt in his literary labor, and when he looked up he saw the pleasant face of his neighbor Vincent. "Yes, sir, I am," he answered. " The only girl I have or want is my sister, and I am just writing to her to come down. It will be a happy day for me, sir, when my sister gets here and helps to enjoy our little home. It is not very much of a place, yet, but it is all our own, and I think we can make each other happy here. I am afraid I am rather an awkward fellow when it comes to writing, for I wanted to tell her that everything we have here I have earned since I came to North Carolina. Then I wanted to explain that although I still work for wages here, for you and 76 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. at the cotton giii and in the saw-mill, it is only to get more money to turn the little place into a plantation that I do it, and a fellow doesn't mind wage-earning when the wages go toward improving his own home ; but I didn't get that in either/' " No matter about that," Mr. Vincent said, w^ith a laugh. Your sister will soon find out about all those things, when she comes. I hope you have got in the most important part, I mean the money to pay her way down here, if she needs it." " Yes, sir, I have told her where to go and get the money," Hunt replied, folding his sheet and putting it into the envelope. " I didn't leave out quite every- thing, sir." " And you told her about the crops you intend to raise, I suppose ?" Mr. Vincent asked. " Yes, sir, I told her that I hoped soon to have my cotton planted," Hunt answered. " That's a matter I want to speak to you about, young man," Mr. Vincent continued. " You were a farmer in the North, I understand, so you know that when you want to get a crop you must fertilize the ground. No doubt Mr. Burrus told you this, for he knows how to grow cotton. But you must have money enough to buy fertilizer to put on your cotton land to make the crop grow. No fertilizer, no cotton, that's pretty sure. So don't make the mistake that some newcomers make, of trying to grow cotton without giving it something to feed upon." " No, sir, I am not going to make that mistake/' SOME OF HUNT'S "COLORED NEIGHBORS. THE "PATCH" BECOMES A PLANTATION. 77 Hunt replied. " I am going to fertilize the land, sir, and I have earned money enough to buy the fertilizer." ^' Then one more thing, my lad," Mr. Vincent went on, " for you are so industrious that I want to see you succeed. All our planters are talking about diver- sified crops ; but don't you be led astray by that talk. Growing corn and many other crops, instead of all cotton, is a very good thing when a man has plenty of land, as most of them have ; but remember that you have only five acres, and that your greatest profit will be in cotton. After awhile you can branch out, but in the beginning cotton is your friend." " That's just what I thought, sir," Hunt exclaimed. " Of my five acres I intend to plant four acres in cotton, for I can't grow everything on five acres. When I get more land, as I hope to have after awhile, perhaps I can grow my own corn to fatten my own hogs ; but in the beginning a bale or two of cotton will buy corn for the hogs. And all the time there will be room enough for plenty of ^ garden stuff,' for our own eating." " Ah, you will have a good plantation here almost before you know it," Mr. Vincent laughed, " for you know what you are about. But I see you are going to do some more building with the fresh-cut sticks out by your little barn. What is it going to be this time, my boy ?" " I am only putting up a lean-to against the barn, sir," Hunt replied. " It is no secret, but I am going to keep something in it that is intended for a little 78 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. surprise for my sister, so I should rather not speak of it until she comes, sir.'' " Ah, this looks like a woman in the house, or a woman expected, which is the next thing to it,'' Mr. Vincent exclaimed, as he stepped up to the table to look at a flower box which stood upon it, in which some fragant violets were blooming. " Been making a flower box for your sister, have you ?" "Yes, sir, I want to make it as comfortable for her as I can," Hunt answered, " and she is very fond of flowers. It will be something she has never seen before, when she finds the grass full of blooming violets, in February." Soon after Mr. Vincent's departure. Hunt went to work at the lean-to beside the barn, for that was some- thing to be finished without fail by the time of his sister's arrival. While he was cutting one of the long slender timbers, the sound of a footstep caused him to look up, and he saw before him the colored neighbor who had hauled several of his loads of slabs from the saw-mill. " Mawnin', boss," said the man, with a pull at the peak of his cap, and a scrape at the ground with the toe of one ragged shoe. "You's a-gitten quite a place here, boss, an' I hear you's fixin' up, 'ca'se you 'specs yo' sistah heah to lib wid you. "My ole woman she done yeah 'bout yo' sistah comin' an' she glad you goin' ter have some company yeah. She say she reckon yo' sistah's teefe done need a powerful lot o' cleanin' 'gin she gits yeah, so she THE ''PATCH'' BECOMES A PLANTATION. 79 sen' ober dis yeah box an' toofe brush fer de gal. Dat yeah brush de rale black gum wood, I done cut it my- self, fer de ole woman/' As he spoke he held out in one hand a tin tobacco box, much the worse for age and rust, and a small dark brown stick, opening the box to show that it was partially filled with snuff. " Why, that's tobacco !" Hunt exclaimed, as he recognized the requisites for dipping snuff. " It's very kind of you and your wife to think of it. Uncle Henry, but I think I had better not give them to my sister, for she never uses tobacco in any form, and even the smell of it would make her sick. Girls don't dip snuff in our country, you know, Uncle Henry." " Bress yer heart, she needn' be skeered of it, boss, de brush ain' done been chawed none yit ; but she'll soon learn ter chaw de sweet little brush, w'en she done come inter dis yer country," Uncle Henry re- torted, as he returned the treasures to his pocket. " Indeed she'll not !" Hunt declared. " I'll try to find her something better to chew on than a little snuffy stick, Uncle Henry, that's what I'm here for. But I'm just as much obliged to you and your wife for your good intentions, as if I could take it. You are all good neighbors, here on the creek, white or black ; and I will tell my sister about your kindness, when she comes. I am building something here for her, but I can't tell you yet what is to be kept in it." 80 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. " Yah, yah, yah ! w'ite gals up Norf don' chaw de stick, eh ?" the black neighbor roared from a distance, on his way back to "the ole' woman/' " Den I reckon dey ain' got no black gum up deah ! but she soon learn to shine her teefe down yeah." CHAPTER VII. THE FAMILY IN THE BRICE CREEK HOME. Pink ribbons make no part of the usual outfit of a cotton plantation ; but Hunt bought a number of yards of cheap pink ribbon in his frequent visits to New Bern after he sent for his sister. The answer from her he received necessarily at New Bern, that being his post-office. " Now hold up your head, Bob/' he told the patient ox, after the letter had come announcing that Mary was about to sail ; and as he spoke he tied a streamer of the ribbon to Bob's horns. " There's a young lady coming to see you, and I want you to look your best, old fellow." He had talked so much to Bob in his solitude that it almost seemed as if the reflective animal could understand him. Then leaving Bob wholly unmoved by his new splendor, the young planter went into the lean-to beside the barn and decorated a handsome little animal there with a strip of ribbon around its neck, and as shapely a bow as he could tie under the throat. " Keep still, Fanny, your mistress is coming," he said to the new animal ; but " Fanny " might have been the name of a cow or a dog, and the mystery of the lean-to was still Hunt's own secret, and none other's. 6 81 82 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. There was still a long strip of the ribbon left after this bow was tied, however, for Hunt had other uses for it. There had never been a moment's doubt in his mind about his sister's coming when he sent for her ; but the letter saying that she was actually on the way had come before he could use the reserve envelope and sheet of paper to write her once more to be sure to bring Rover and Buster. It was well for him that that was a bright moon- light night, for he had much work to do in the Maria Louise before daylight. In the ordinary course of events Mary should arrive in New Bern in the steam- boat Neuse next morning, and the boat must be in good trim to carry her over to her new home. He unscrewed the arm-chair from his bench and put it back in the stern of the boat, put the cushions in their proper places, carried down the mast and sails and the oars, and wiped the boat as dry as the floor of his house. It was barely past four o'clock in the morning and still bright moonlight when he hoisted the sail and set out for New Bern, for the Neuse was due at eight o'clock. Never before had his own little settlement looked so handsome to him as it looked that morning under the soft light, nor the pine bluff bordering the creek, nor the creek itself, nor the broad river Trent. It was all the better that the wind was unfavorable for him at the start, for that gave him a valid excuse for warming himself by using the oars. What cared he THE FAMILY IN THE BRICE CREEK HOME. 83 for the labor of rowing, when Mary was coming, and perhaps Rover and Buster ? He had timed himself so well that he was past the Trent River bridge when the steamboat Neuse swung in from the broader river toward her wharf. Scores of people, colored people, were crossing the long bridge, and other scores were gathered on the wharf, and he sympathized with them because they had no share in his joy over the coming of Mary and Rover and Buster. How commonplace the world must seem to them, he thought, to see the boat coming in with- out any expectation of greeting a loved sister. The Neuse's bow swung in, but he saw no sign of Mary among the people on her upper deck. No matter, she would be busy below, he knew, getting her baggage ready for landing. And as she must come out through the big gate with the other passen- gers, he must land himself, at the next wharf, to be ready to greet her. He sprang ashore, and tying his boat, went up tow^ard the gate of exit to wait for his sister. The gate was open when he reached it, and he had stood among the hackmen only a few moments when he was almost knocked down. A big black-and-white setter dog wdth a chain attached to his leather collar made a dash through the crowd, dragging helter-skelter a girl who held fast to the other end of the chain with one hand, and carried on her other arm a big square brown basket with a cover. "Why, Rover, dear old fellow !" Hunt cried, in- 84 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION, stantly recognizing his dog, and at the sound of his voice Rover sprang lovingly upon him, putting one front paw upon each shoulder, and licking his face. Then Mary came with a rush, still holding the chain, and the next moment Hunt had her in his arms. " Welcome to New Bern, sister and chum !" he exclaimed, giving her an embrace and a hearty kiss. " You don^t know how glad I am to see you, Mary. And dear old Rover, too. But where is Buster? I hope you haven't forgotten little Buster." " Why, here is Buster, in the basket, Hunt," Mary replied, returning her brother's salute with interest. " You never saw such a little traveller as he is. Hunt. I kept the basket in my stateroom on both boats, though the notices say dogs are not allowed in state- rooms ; and I guess he knew where he was, for he did not open his mouth the whole way." " Good for little Buster !" Hunt exclaimed, as he took the basket. "And Rover knew me the minute he saw me. Come, Rover ! that's one of our most influential hackmen you have just tripped up with your chain. We must get out of the way, here. Come, Mary, right over here to our own boat." " Oh, and then to our own home !" Mary cried, delightedly, trying to drag Rover after her. " Here, Rove !" Hunt called, when they were a little to one side ; and Rover made another dash for his master, and the chain caused the sudden downfall of a colored boy who was admiring the top of the steamboat's smokestack, with his hands in his pockets. THE PAMiLY IN THE JBRICE CREEK HOME, 85 " Get right into that arm-chair in the stern/' Hunt directed, as he pulled the boat around and helped his sister in. " You can hold Buster in your lap there, and let him enjoy the scenery of the Sunny South. Here Rover, amidships is your place. Now for home, Mary ; and a new home I tell you it will be for me, with you and Rover and Buster. We'll be away from the crowd in a minute. Oh, yes, here is your satchel all safe ; I nearly forgot that in the commotion. Down, Rover ; lie still, sir ; I am going to introduce you to a dear old ox when we get home." " Why, what a fine place !" Mary exclaimed, as she worked at the fastenings of Buster's basket. " This is New Bern here, I suppose, of course." "Yes, this is New Bern," Hunt replied, as he hoisted the sail ; " and that is James City across the river, where three thousand colored people live, all in cabins. And this is the river Trent we are on, and right ahead of us is the Trent River bridge. What do you think of this warm sun for the last of February, Mary ? You begin to see now that you are down South, don't you? Isn't this handsome around here?" he continued. "We have just a nice little sail now up the Trent, to the mouth of Brice Creek, and then home." " It is like beautiful spring," Mary replied ; " and I can appreciate it, for I had to wade through snow when I left the farm. And to think that you and I are going to our own home, Hunt ! Now sit still. Buster !" she cried, for by this time Buster was out 86 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. of his basket and in her lap, and was evidently deter- mined to learn his new surroundings, for he was stretching his little yellow neck to look in every pos- sible direction. Mary's excitement made itself manifest when the boat sheered into the creek ; but when the little set- tlement became visible she could hardly keep her seaf. " Why, Hunt !'' she exclaimed, clapping her hands ; " that your place, with all those buildings ?'' "No, not my place, our place,'' Hunt answered. " That is our home, and the place where we are both to do plenty of hard work, to make it homelike. It makes quite a showing from the water, but the five buildings are all small. Our house, you see, is a bit of a place, but it is large enough to hold us both. By the time we have grown larger, maybe the house and the plantation will have grown larger too. There is plenty of room all around, you see, for growth. We can add to our land, perhaps, when any of our neigh- bors want to sell ; and we can add to our house when- ever we have the boards and the time to give it. That is a thing that depends entirely upon ourselves ; it's not like working for so much a month, where improvement must depend upon other people. Here we can be whatever we make ourselves, Mary. But look out, now, little 'un, for we are almost home. Do you see that path up the bluff? that's the spot. And the little tree at the foot of the bluff, down by the water? that's where I keep the boat tied. Look out THE FAMILY IN THE BRICE CREEK HOME. 87 for a little tipping, now, when I unchain Rover, for he will surely jump.'^ " Here Rove, old boy/' Hunt stepped out with the painter in his hand, the sail having been lowered when they entered the creek, and in an instant Rover was ashore, wagging his tail with great vehemence, and barking to show his pleasure at being on firm land again. Hunt tied the painter to the little tree at the water's edge, and by the time he held out his hands for Mary, Rover was at the top of the bluif, digging holes in the sand and barking gleefully. " Welcome home, Mary !" and as Hunt said the heartfelt words he reached forward and lifted his sister bodily out of the boat, with Buster still in her arms. " Now, then, little Bust, this is home for you too, old fellow," he exclaimed, as he set Buster carefully down. And the little dog seemed to realize it, for he made desperate efforts to spring upon the shoulders of both master and mistress, barking furiously all the time. By the time the brother and sister had reached the summit of the bluif, both dogs were frisking about the door-yard, and barking at nothing. Hunt ran ahead and unlocked he door, and threw it open. " It is the finest house I every saw in my life. Hunt," Mary exclaimed, as she stepped in. " Because it is home, I suppose, and because you built it. But there are two of us now to work, and you will not have (Everything to do alone. ^^ Why, I declare ! " she exclaimed, " here is a coffee 88 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. pot hanging against the wall ; and if there is some coffee I will soon have some made, for I am the cook now, you know/' Any boy would have been proud to show his sister what he had made and earned, and Hunt was no ex- ception ; but he had much to do. First he built a roaring fire of light wood, and then ran down to the creek with the pail, for he must have water for the teakettle, and the arm-chair must he brought up for Mary. It was a pity, by the time he returned Mary had found and examined her own room, and could hardly find words to express her pleasure. When he came back the boat cushions were in his arms. There were two cooks for the breakfast that morn- ing, for both brother and sister insisted upon doing the w^ork ; and in an interval the beauties of the Hyde County beds had to be exhibited. " They're just splendid, and so springy P Mary exclaimed. " I never slept on such a good bed in my life. And the cushions are stuffed with cotton ! There must be plenty of cotton around here. Hunt, and we can have not only cushions, but mattresses and quilts and pillows. Why, we can soon live here like a king and queen. I see a few little things that a girl's hands can do. Some little cheap sash curtains for the windows w^ould look well. Hunt, and we need some dish towels and dish cloths. I'd like to have some cotton cloth to make our mattresses of, too, for I must be at work. I suppose you have to go over to THE FAMILY IN THE BRICE CREEK HOME. 89 New Bern when you want to buy anything ? Would it take too much of your time to sail me over in the boat to-day ?" This was while Mary was eating her first bite of pig ham, and Rover and Buster w^ere making short work of the poached eggs. The brother and sister were too full of joy to care much for eating, and Mary^s question gave Hunt the chance he wanted to introduce a very important subject. " The boat is very useful, Mary," he said, but we do not have to depend upon that entirely for going over to the city. Step outside a moment till I show you the live stock." Mary was half wild with joy as she followed Hunt out, for she was fond of all living things. " This is the smoke house," Hunt explained, as he paused in front of it. " Here our bacon is to be cured, when we get our pigs." " And this is the stable," he continued, leading her on. " There is nothing in it yet but an ox ; but he is a very useful companion. Wait a moment till I bring him out." When he returned leading the ox. Bob stood pawing the ground, and by throwing his head up waved his long ribbons grandly. Mary clapped her hands and fairly shouted for glee. "But what is in here?" she asked. "There is some other animal in this lean-to, isn't there ?" " There is something here that a fellow I know has bought for a little present for his dear sister," Hunt 90 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. answered, as he opened the door of the lean-to and entered. " Come, Fanny, come out and see your mistress," he went on, leading out a handsome bay pony about twelve hands high. And Fanny neighed, and stepped up and rubbed her nose against Mary's hands. '' This is your very own pony, Mary," Hunt con- tinued. " She is what they call a ^ banks pony ' in this country, and is gentle as a kitten and doesn't have to be shod. They are cheap here, Mary, and very useful. You can ride her over to the city when we do not go in the boat, and I can go with you in the ox- cart. I could not afford a saddle and bridle, Mary ; but this rope bridle answers the purpose, and as I know you are a good rider you can get along with this folded blanket strapped on with the surcingle." By this time Mary was on Fanny's back, and Fanny was whinnying her pleasure. " If you are in a hurry to make your purchases," Hunt continued, " I will harness up the ox and cart at once, and we will go over to New Bern ^ right now,' as the North Carolinians say." As Rover and Buster were such strangers, it was determined that they should be left in the house while the brother and sister were absent ; but they were both decorated with what was left of the pink ribbon. In a few minutes both ox and pony Avere ready ; and, the door having been locked, the little procession L >v»f.»sC4^lW^ WITH MARY ON THE PONY IN THE LEAD, AND THE OX-CART BRINGING UP THE REAR THE FAMILY IN THE BRICE CREEK HOME. 91 started, with Mary on the pony in the lead, and the ox -cart bringing up the rear. " I suppose everybody will laugh at us," Mary laughed to herself, turning toward Hunt just before they reached the bridge over Brice Creek. "Indeed, this is very stylish," Hunt retorted. " Now, if you were riding the ox or driving the cart you would be in true North Carolina fashion. It is nothing unusual to see a woman driving an ox-cart into town with a load of wood or pork. But I hope you will not get so far into the style as to smoke a corn-cob pipe while riding, or to chew a stick dipped in snufP." " Never fear about that !" Mary laughed again. " I want to be a real North Carolinian with cotton, but not with tobacco, which I think is very dirty stuff." " But what kind of a settlement is this ?" she asked, for they were about to enter the outskirts of James City, and the long rows of half ruinous cabins attracted her attention. " AYhv, our own house is quite a mansion compared with any of these," she went on. " I don't see how people can live in such tumble-down shanties." " These are all colored people living here," Hunt explained, "and they can do almost anything that requires no labor. You see what we should soon come to if we grew too lazy to keep things neat." " Well, we'll not do that !" Mary exclaimed ; and she could not say more at the moment, for the pony 92 PINE RIDGE PLANTATIOJ^. had struck into what they both thought the most perfect saddle gait ever seen. But she called, " I'll wait for you at the end of the bridge," for the bridge was now visible through the long, narrow, muddy» shanty-lined street. Bob could not be hurried into a fast walk, but when he reached the bridge he found Mary and Fanny waiting impatiently for him, and they all soon crossed the long bridge into the city of New Bern. A gentleman whom they encountered, when over the bridge, took off his hat so gallantly to Mary that at first she thought he must be ridiculing her. But as another gentleman soon did the same thing she saw that it was real politeness, not irony. With one or two turns they were soon in Pollock Street, and in front of the post-office, where Hunt stopped Bob and ran in to inquire for mail. " Most of the stores are in this street," he told Mary, when he returned ; and as Fanny was indulging a fondness for standing on her hind legs and paw- ing the air, she was glad to see that she was not the only girl on a pony without a saddle, nor Bob the only ox come to town with a cart. They went into store after store in Pollock Street and then in Middle Street, leaving Bob standing con- tentedly outside and Fanny hitched to an awning post. When that part of the business was concluded there lay in the cart a large parcel, and a great paper bag. " Now we have the dry goods we need," Mary said, THE FAMILY IN THE BRICE CREEK HOME. 93 " and large and small needles and a pair of scissors, and cord for the mattresses ; but for stuffing the mattresses and quilts and pillows, we must have some cotton. I suppose there must be plenty of cotton in New Bern ; how would it do to buy a bale and take it home with us ?" "A bale of cotton !" Hunt exclaimed, aghast. " Well, you are not a true Southern girl yet, that's plain. Why, child, a bale of cotton weighs five hun- dred pounds, and at six cents a pound is worth thirty dollars. That would be enough cotton to make a dozen mattresses." "But I'll show you a better way than that," he continued. " We will go right down Middle Street, and then down an alley, to the cotton gin where I work sometimes, and where I can buy some of the uncleaned cotton, just as it comes in from the planta- tions, at less than half price ; and a feed bag stuffed full will be plenty for us." " Oh, I should so like to see a cotton gin !" Mary declared, and they were soon in front of the gin house, and inside she was delighted to watch the loose cotton rush up to the mouth of a big tin pipe, like the register pipe of a furnace in the North, and so travel rap- idly to the top of the building, she not kno^ang, of course, that the air was exhausted from the other end of the pipe for that purpose. When they left the cotton gin, a big feed bag stuffed tight with cotton lay in the cart beside the other things. "Now I want to go to Burrus & Gray's for a 94 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. minute," Hunt announced, " for as we have animals we must have something to feed them with." They turned down South Front Street, and then into Craven Street, and were soon in front of Burr us & Gray's office, where they stopped and Hunt went in. In a minute two porters came out bringing a bag of oats and a bag of corn, and '^ Fanny behaved beauti- fully," as Mary thought, for she stood up on her hind legs and pawed the air like a circus pony. The New York girl was an experienced horse- woman, and as she kept her seat with ease she became aware of two gentlemen standing on the curb beside her, taking oif their hats and bowing as politely to her as if she had been some fine lady of distinction. They were Mr. Burrus and Mr. Grav, as she soon learned. " How do you do, Miss Mary ?" Mr. Burrus asked, taking off his hat to her. " Hunt tells me that you are his sister, and I bid you welcome to North Caro- lina, and hope you will enjoy yourself here in the South. Your brother is a worker, and that is a com- fortable home he has made for you both." " Good evening, Miss Robertson," Mr. Gray said, as he also removed his hat and bowed ; and Mary was surprised, for she did not know yet that in the South afternoon is always called evening. '^ That is a fine boat your brother has," Mr. Gray continued, "and no doubt you Avill have some great sport fishing, over on Brice Creek. I see you have nothing to learn about riding from the North Carolina ladies," he added, and again removed his hat. THE FAMILY IN THE BRICE CREEK HOME. 95 i( Now when you want anything that you can't find in a new country/' Mr. Burrus said, " be sure to come to me, Miss Mary, for your brother and I are old friends." After a few words of thanks and farewell the odd little procession turned down South Front Street again, and continued until the end of Trent River bridge was reached. " I never saw such polite people !" Mary exclaimed, as they crossed the long bridge. ^' Why, those gentle- men treated us as if we were real planters, instead of only a poor boy and girl trying to make a living." "Just what I have been telling you," Hunt answered. " I think they are the most polite and most accommodating people in the world, and I am glad we are here." "But look here, Mary !" Hunt called, for by this time they were in the narrow lanes of James City, where their way was often obstructed by droves of pigs, large and small, and countless chickens and turkeys. " These things are a nuisance in the streets, but I am interested in them, for I suppose any of them can be bought, and we shall want to buy some of them before long to stock our pigpen and poultry house that I have not had time to show you yet." " Oh, that will be splendid !" Mary cried, as Fanny dashed ahead. " I am so glad we are to have pigs and poultry ; and you shall not have one bit of bother with them, for I will feed them every day." 96 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. "There's the right girl for a poor planter's sister !" Hunt said to himself, Mary being far out of hear- ing, and out of sight around a turn. In due time they crossed the bridge over Brice Creek and reached their own premises, where they were greeted by the joyful barking of two dogs in the house. When Hunt opened the door to carry their purchases inside, both dogs sprang out, and capered like mad about them. " Hunt !" Mary exclaimed, when the cart was empty, " as you can drive that ox, I believe you can ride him. What do you say to a race up and down the bluff, after you unhitch him from the cart? I want you to see how beautifully Fanny goes." " But you don't know how beautifully an ox goes, when you wake him up !" Hunt laughed. " However, I'm willing to try, and a little sport will do us no harm." The arrangements for an impromptu race along the bluff were soon made, and when Bob was freed from the cart. Hunt straddled his back and seized him by the horns. " Come on !" he cried, and both dogs entered fully into the spirit of the occasion. Kover sprang play- fully at the ox's nose, and Buster tried his best to mount Fanny's lowered head, both barking furiously. " Then come on !" Mary echoed, when they reached the bluff; and at a word Fanny started at a great pace over the soft ground. THE FAMILY IN THE BRICE CREEK HOME. 97 "Ah, Vm. beating you already !" she called back;' and as this was painfully evident, Hunt used his heels to pound the ox's sides, and slapped him with his hand upon the haunches. The sight of the pony galloping in advance, the excitement of Rover snapping at his nose, the annoyance of Buster frisking and barking around and under him, the kicking against his ribs, the slapping of his haunches, Hunt's shouts and Mary's laughter, with perhaps his unaccustomed freedom from harness, combined to stir the ox's usually sluggish feelings, and to awaken in him a degree of enthusiasm that in the North Carolina ox is seldom reached, and that once reached, portends trouble. Hunt knew nothing of the volcano that was beginning to smoke behind those gentle eyes, however, and continued his kicking, slapping, and shouting, and the unwieldy ox was soon going at a furious pace. When Mary reached the end of the cleared space at the edge of the bluff, Fanny running her prettiest, instead of turning back, as Hunt expected, she swerved off to the left in a segment of a great circle, toward the fence inclosing the plot, looking about and shout- ing to Hunt, " I'm going to try the pony at a fence," and in an instant Fanny leaped the fence almost as gracefully as a deer could have done it. The ox, not to be outdone without a struggle, re- doubled his speed, raised his head as high as his thick neck permitted, and shook it as if he would shake off his horns. They were well secured against bemg lost, 7 98 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. however, for Hunt had a life-and-death grip upon them both, Bob's horns and tail being his only securi- ties. When Bob reached the point where Fanny had turned he was at the very top of his speed, and swerved to follow the pony's footsteps. Seeing only too clearly what was coming. Hunt shouted to Mary, who was now safely over the fence, " Look out ! look out ! Keep out of the way, for Bob's going to try the fence, too. I can stand the fence, if he don't try to jump the stable !" Bob " took " the fence in more senses than one, for he struck the top rail, and the dear knows how many panels of it came down with a crash, and Bob came down too, and Hunt with him. But before the young planter could escape from the general wreck the ox was on his feet and away again. The excited ox paid no more attention to the bluff, but struck off across the plantation at his best speed. Hunt's warmest wish was for a third hand, that he might hold to both horns and the lashing tail at the same time. To slide over the ox's head was impossible on account of the horns, but it occurred to the uncertain rider in the nick of time that there are two ends to an ox. Once he was off and dragging alongside, still \holding to one horn ; but again Bob was brought to his knees, and the rider regained his precarious seat. Then away again, and as they passed the stable door for the second time at a mad run Hunt slid back over Bob's haunches and slipped to the ground on his feet, THE FAMILY IN THE BRICE CREEK HOME. 99 almost as glad to reach solid land as when he landed at Norfolk from the steamer. " The ox is a gentle animal, and very good to draw wood, but no use for a saddle horse," he called to Mary, who now came slowly up on the pony. And Bob, seeing his master at the stable door, thought of his supper, and walked back as sedately as if nothing could induce him to move faster than a walk. " I like him for his spirit,'^ Mary laughed, " and I am going to get Fanny some corn for cupper. You feed Bob, will you?" " Yes, I will feed this battering-ram," Hunt replied, " and after we have fed ^ the critters ' we must have some supper ourselves." Both of the young planters were hungry, and both looked forward with pleasure to the supper, remem- bering the fat roe shad that Hunt had run over to the Market Wharf to buy as they passed it, and that had come home in the cart between the cotton and the feed. That shad was worth from seventy-five cents to one dollar in the market ; but as Hunt had given the fisherman more than a dollar's worth of assistance with his boat one day when the fisherman's seine was in a tangle, it cost nothing. CHAPTER VIII. " cone-plantin' time." The materials for the spoon bread were thoroughly mixed when Mary cooked the supper after the race on the bluff; her hands shook so with laughter that they could not help being well mixed. Hunt read the recipe to her, and she had no trouble with it. " Shad in February !" she exclaimed, as she turned the well-browned fish in the frying-pan. ^' Sometimes we used to get one up in Ontario County by June, but never many of them at any time of year.'' "Ah, there is no Neuse River flowing through Ontario County," Hunt answered, " nor Trent either, nor Brice Creek. They had shad here by the last of January; but this is not February, Mary, this is March. You are sure to get a little mixed about the months when you first come into this Avarmer climate, as I did. I can hardly realize that our winter is fairly over, for we have hardly had any yet. Some- times in January," he continued, " I needed a fire to keep warm by ; but did you notice the buds on the trees as we came up the road from James City ? You know what that means, Mary ; a few more days of this warm weather will turn those buds into leaves, and that means spring. The grass is turning green, 100 '' CONE'PLANTIN' TIMEr 101 too, what there is of it. There's not much grass about here compared with what we have up in New York State, but there are plenty of other things." " You're almost a farmer yourself, Mary," he went on, " and you know what corn-plan tin' time means, don't you ? Only down here you must say cone, and speak of the Cote House when you mean the Court House, or people won't know what you mean." " Of co'se I know cone-plantin' time !'^ Mary laughed. " Up No'th it's the tenth of May, if you have an almanac. If you have no almanac, you put yo' han' on de groun', an' if de groun' gives it heat 'stid of takin' de heat away, den begin to plant yo' cone." " Why, you're getting the North Carolina dialect already !" Hunt declared ; " but you must get the hang of the No'th Ca'line plan tin' seasons, and that's what I want to explain to you. Down here we plant corn by the last of March, and you know what that means, for when you plant corn you want to have your peas, beans, and all the rest of your garden truck in the ground. I want to get that done, so as to have our garden all made before cotton-plantin' time. We plant cotton by the first of May, and that means plenty of work." ^^ Sit right down to your supper, Hunt, dear !" Mary answered. "You can't plant any garden or cotton in here to-night, but we've got a lot of work to do making mattresses and pillows and things." The supper was soon disposed of, but it did not 102 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. take the brother and sister long to find that making two mattresses and a number of pillows was work for more than one evening. For two days Hunt was at work at the cotton gin in New Bern, and when he returned at the end of the second day the mattresses and pillows were neatly made, and there were sash curtains to both the win- dows, and another curtain over the pans that hung upon the wall. The cabin had never looked so home- like before, and that night Mary in her room and Hunt in the other thought the Hyde County beds the most comfortable sleeping machines known to man. "But you ought have let me help with all this sew^ing,'^ Hunt called through the open door, a blaze of light-wood sticks illuminating both rooms. "You have enough to do outside,'^ Mary called back, " and I want to do my share of the work." Hunt had brought some very large spikes home with him from New Bern, and next day he took Bob and the cart to the saw-mill, and returned with several large two-inch planks, which in due time were con- verted into a home-made harrow. " I bought a plow long ago from Mr. Vincent," he explained, " and now with that and the harrow we are ready to prepare the ground for the first planting." A few days later Hunt brought Bob into the kitchen garden hitched to the plow, and plowed it as smoothly as he could, and after harrowing it, raked it down neatly with the iron rake he had brought from New " CONE-PLANTIN' TIME." 103 Bern, and then plowed and harrowed a small part of the ground outside of the garden. This done, both the young planters went over to New Bern with the ox and cart, Mary carrying Buster's big basket, which, when they returned, was filled with early cabbage plants, lettuce plants, and tomato plants. And in the cart lay two bags, not quite full, of commercial fertilizer. There were some packages of beans and peas, too, in the basket, for seed, and between the bags of fertilizer lay part of a bag of white potatoes, for planting. Mary worked beside her brother like an experienced farm hand when they began to plant the garden, and set out a large share of the plants after Hmit had marked and fertilized the hills and rows. " I don't quite understand this, Hunt," she said, when they rested before the fire of light wood after supper. " We are planting a little garden stuff for our own use, but no feed for the animals, much less any to sell. Why don't you plant the rest of the land ?" " Because that is for cotton," Hunt answered. " I am saving nearly all of it, fully four acres, for cotton. It is cotton that we must look to mainly for our ready money, and the feed we must buy till we are able to buy some more land." "On four acres of land," he continued, "we should raise two bales of cotton, with good luck and good management ; and the price of two bales of cotton will buy lots of feed, and maybe some more land." 104 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. " Then I think we ought to have more land !" Mary exclaimed, putting on another stick of light wood. " I am keeping my eyes open, Mary,'' Hunt answered, " but we must feel our way. There is a patch of seven acres of woodland adjoining this, belonging to a colored man, and he wants to sell it to me for five dollars an acre. This patch was a great bargain, you know, at two dollars an acre, and we can't expect to get any more at that price. I should like to buy the woodland at five dollars an acre, for I think I can cut enough wood on it almost to pay for it ; but I must have the money for our coming cotton before we can afford it. Then my plan would be to clear and fence it next winter, and plant more cotton next year. We could fence off a place there for our hogs to run, too — the hogs that we hope soon to have." " That will be splendid !" Mary cried. " That begins to look like growing into a real plantation. And I want to find some way to make my share of the money, Hunt." By the last of March the rows of early peas were up, and Hunt had put sticks to them, and some sweet corn for their own use had been planted. The potatoes were just beginning to show. " But why do you plant white potatoes. Hunt ?" Mary asked, one day. " Everybody about here plants sweet potatoes." " Correct !" Hunt answered. " Everybody plants sweet potatoes, and that makes them very cheap. So " CONE-PLANTIN' TIME:* 105 I plant white ones, which cost much more. Every bushel of our white potatoes will buy half a dozen bushels of sweet ones, if we want them/' In the interval between the time of making garden, and the time for plowing the ground to plant his cotton. Hunt was at work for wages nearly every day, increasing as far as possible his little hoard of money. There was not as much to be done now at the cotton gin, because the cotton of the last crop had been pretty well brought in and sold oflP; so the gin itself had many idle days. This was fully made up, how- ever, by the spring activity on Mr. Vincent's truck farm, where work was now to be had nearly every dry day. The saw-mill on Brice Creek was another chance for employment ; and Hunt extended his field of operations in New Bern, where the shore of the Neuse River is almost lined with large saw-mills. To enlarge his field still further, he applied successfully for work at the cotton-seed oil mill, where, while earning his daily pay, he saw the shapely cotton seeds pressed till pure oil flowed from them, and saw the husks remaining ground into cotton-seed meal, an oily substance much liked by cattle, and a fertilizer much in demand. It surprised him to learn that the product of a given area of cotton land is twice as much in seed, by weight, as in the cotton fibre itself, so that if ten acres produce two thousand five hundred pounds of cotton, the weight of the seeds is five thou- sand pounds, which are worth usually twelve dollars a ton. 106 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. The cotton-seed oil mill is far up East Front Street in New Bern, up beyond the Neuse Kiver bridge and the ice factory, and when Hunt was walking down the street one afternoon on an errand for his employer, he was surprised to see a pony that looked remark- ably like Fanny coming up the street, ridden by a girl who looked remarkably like Mary, and who carried in one hand, holding it out as far as possible from her, something wet and shiny, that was unmistakably a string of large fish. " Why, Mary !" he exclaimed, when within speak- ing distance, and stepped into the street to her side. " Hello, Hunt !'' Mary answered, holding her fish higher to let him admire them. " Not going home yet, are you? If you are you can take the pony, and rU walk." " No, we don't close down till six,'' Hunt answered ; " but where in the world did you get your fish, and what are you going to do with them ?" " Caught them, to be sure," Mary laughed, " and I'm going to sell them, because that's what I catch them for. I bring some over to New Bern nearly every day to sell, and take them to the white people's houses. They sell well, and I am doing quite a busi- ness. You know what they are, I suppose ?" " Of course I know," Hunt replied. " They are what are called here Welshmen, a great big black bass, and Brice Creek is where they live. But I don't imderstand this." " It's very easy," Mary laughed. " I take the "CONE-PLANTIN' TIME.^' 107 Maria Louise out into the creek in the early morning, but never into the river, because I know you wouldn't want me to go there. First I catch some ^ shiners ' for bait, and the fish are fine big fellows, weighing from four to six pounds. I'm not going to have you do all the work and I stay at home doing nothing, so I bring them over here to sell to the white people. I have sold more than twenty of them in the last week, at from twenty to thirty cents each. They are a fine fish for the table, and they sell better than shad, because shad are so much dearer." " But you don't mean to say that you have been catching and selling fish for a week !" Hunt exclaimed. " Don't I, then !" Mary laughed, " and I expect to sell the rest of these, before I go home. It's my little mite toward the plantation. Hunt, and here it is ; " and as she spoke she held up and shook her little purse, in which the silver jingled. ^^ Well, that beats me !" Hunt retorted. " I declare I don't know what to say about it. I didn't know you understood baiting a hook, much less catching a fish." " We want a plantation. Hunt, and we've got to earn it," Mary laughed. "Don't you be alarmed about niy going in the boat, for I never use the sail, but just take the oars. I'm going to learn how to manage that boat, though. The creek and river are both full of money, and we may as well have some of it. Come home as early as you can. Hunt, for I have saved a big Welshman for our own suppers, and you will find they are good eating." 108 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION, " Mary, you are a trump !'' Hunt declared ; " and I am glad to have you for a chum. How well Fanny is looking. I hope Rover and Buster are all right." " I thought they would tear the house down when I locked them in/' Mary replied. " Buster gives his approval to the Hyde County beds, and sleeps in mine every night. Rover was testing the quality of one of your pillows when I shut the door. They both go fishing with me nearly every morning, and I don't know what we should do without them. Now do try to be home early, Hunt." " I'll be in time for the "Welshman, never fear !" Hunt called back, he having resumed his way down the street. " I shall have to stop a few minutes in James City, for I have a little business with a promi- nent citizen there about a litter of pigs." CHAPTER IX. GENEEAL MILES EATS A WELSHMAN. " What was the queer name you gave the fish you had to-day V^ Hunt asked, when he returned to the budding plantation for supper. " It was not Dutch- man or Frenchman, but something like that.'' " No, Welshman/' Mary laughed, touching a match to the light-wood to prepare for cooking the Welsh- man that was to make their meal. "You got the wrong country, that was all. It is a queer name, isn't it ? But that is the only name by which black bass of that species are known about here. Some- times when I go along the street with a string of them, a colored man or woman stops to look at them, and says, 'Dat a nice string o' Welchmans you got dah dis mawnin', missy.' " In the morning Hunt tried to persuade his sister not to go fish-catching and fish-selling that day, and the little dispute that followed ended in a compromise, as disputes between them generally did. " I ought to have a chance to make some of the money we are sure to need. Hunt," Mary urged. " You are a brave little sister to want to do it," Hunt retorted ; " but I think it is my place to make the money, and I don't half like your going fishing 109 110 PINE BIDGE PLANTATION. alone. It is not because I have any foolish notions about your selling fish. We are working people, both of us, and we must be money-making people as far as we can. But I know you do not know how to swim, and if anything should happen, you might be drowned. You must learn to swim when the water gets warm enough, and then there will be less danger.'^ " Rover would pull me out fast enough if anything should happen," Mary replied, "for he always goes with me, and he is a great swimmer. But the oars are always in my hands, and they would support me.'' " You are late to start for the oil mill this morning. Hunt,'' she continued, "or I should ask you to go fishing for Welshmen with me." " No, there is no work in the oil mill to-day," Hunt answered, " or I should have been off long ago. But that will give me all the better chance to go fishing with you this morning, if you really want me." " Of course I want you," Mary assured him ; " you know I always like to be with you. And you are just in time to do me a great service, if you will, and help my little ^ fishery ' very much. We will have to go after bait first, and maybe you will make me a leaky box that I can keep the bait alive in. If you will, I will make a little coffee for our breakfast while you are about it." " It is easier to make a leaky box than a tight one," Hunt replied, " and I have some bits of board that will do very well. But tell me about the bait, so that I will know what you want." GENERAL MILES EATS A WELSHMAN. Ill "Any sort of box that will let the water run through/' Mary replied, as Hunt took up his hatchet and saw and started out. "The bait are only the little fish we call ' shiners/ as small as sardines, and I catch them with a small hook and hue, with a crumb of bread for bait. They should be kept alive, and I want to keep them in the box, which we must anchor in the creek, of course. And we must catch some ' shiners ' this morning before we can catch any Welshmen, and maybe there will be enough left for me to use in the future." By the time that the coffee was made the crude box was ready, and after drinking their coffee they carried the box down to the creek and " anchored " it with a stout cord to a bush on the edge. Then with great glee they stepped into the boat and shoved her off, and fell to fishing for " shiners " with a tiny hook and line. This took them to many dif- ferent places in the creek, and back to the box, and the sun was high above them before they were ready for the more serious fishing. Hunt insisted upon doing the work with the oars, and they tried this spot and that, up and down the creek, clear water and dark, deep water and shallow, without getting a single bite. " You're the old fisherman !" Hunt exclaimed after awhile, " and you ought to know the best places for them. Can't you pick out some choice spot where we are sure to hook a big one ?" " I think I am fisherman enough for that," Mary 112 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. answered. " Do you see that stake that somebody has left in the water over there close by the other shore? Go over there close to the stake as quietly as you can, and there I think we will catch our breakfast, for the Welshmen are fond of huddling around a stake or a stump or any immovable thing/' Hunt drew the boat noiselessly over to the stake, and for a few minutes neither spoke above a whisper, for fear of frightening away the fish. Then it was Mary who gave the cry of delight, for she drew in one of the largest Welshmen she had yet caught, a monstrous fellow weighing fully six pounds, they thought. Then Hunt took up the oars again, for that one fish was more than enough for their breakfast or dinner, and the boat was soon back at their landing- place. Mary carried the fish up to the house. Hunt declaring that judging by the sun it must be close to ten o'clock, and they shut the door and wound their lines neatly upon reels, after which the fish was cleaned and hung up. "I wish we could always fish together, Hunt," Mary said, after all the work was done ; " then fishing would be only a pleasure." " Hark ! what's that ?" Hunt exclaimed, holding up a warning finger ; for both the dogs, having run out when the door was opened on the couple's return, had set up a furious barking outside. " Bow, wow, wow !" they heard in the deep bass GENERAL MILES EATS A WELSHMAN. 113 voice of Rover, and then a prolonged " wow, wow, oo!'' in the scarcely less loud voice of Buster, and im- mediately afterward a human voice, calling: " Halloo ! halloo there, in the house !'^ " Hist !'^ Hunt warned his sister, and springing up, opened the door. " Here, Rover, here. Buster, come here, sir!'^ he called, and both dogs sprang in, but Hunt stepped out. The barking had prepared him to see a stranger on the premises, but he was not prepared to see such a stranger as he did see. When he looked about he saw walking along the bluff a tall, erect, well-dressed, soldierly-looking gentleman, whose equal in bearing he had seldom if ever seen. Without stopping to wonder what so fine a gentleman could want on the little plantation, he ran down through the garden to the bluff to greet him, and when he reached the bluff saw a strange boat in the creek below, containing a colored man who had evidently rowed the gentleman over. As Hunt stepped up to the distinguished-looking stranger, the latter turned toward him and raised his hand to his head as if to give a military salute, but changed his mind and raised his hat. " Good morning," he said. " Mr. Jerome's place is somewhere about here, I believe ; can you tell me where it is ?'' " No, sir," Hunt replied, taking off his own hat as politely as he could. " I am a stranger here myself, and do not know much about the places." 8 114 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. " Oh, you are a stranger here, are you ?'' the gen- tleman asked, with a smile. "And, judging from your accent, I should say you were from the North,'^ he continued, " so perhaps you can tell me where I can get a bite of breakfast in this neighborhood, as I am from the North too.'' " Is this the first time you have been in the South, sir ?" Hunt asked. " No, my young friend from the North, I have been in the South before," the gentleman answered, with a significant smile that the young planter did not understand. " But when I was here before," he continued, " I had some very good guides, and this time I have lost myself. I came over from New Bern early to visit my relative, Mr. Jerome, expecting to breakfast with him, and as I cannot find his place I shall be glad if you can tell me where I can get a bite to eat." " I do not know of any place but my own house, sir," Hunt replied, waving his hand toward the cabin. " It is only a small house, but we have a good fat Welshman there ready to be cooked, and I should be glad for such good company to breakfast, sir." " Oh, thank you very much for your hospitality," the gentleman said with a merry little laugh, raising his hat again. " You are very kind indeed, and it will be an agreeable novelty to help eat a Welshman, for I don't remember that I have ever eaten one." " Then if you will lead the way, my friend, I will help devour the foreigner with great pleasure. By GENERAL MILES EATS A WELSHMAN. 115 the way, perhaps it would be as well for us to know one another's names. My name is Miles." " Thank you, Mr. Miles," Hunt answered, " my name is Huntley Robertson, sir, and I am trying to build up a little cotton plantation here, sir." "Then I wish you every success, Mr. Huntley Robertson," the stranger answered, with a bow and another smile, "and I believe that you will have it, for your place has every appearance of thrift and industry." Hunt led the stranger straight up to the door of the cabin, which he threw open, and invited him in. " Oh, you have a lady with you !" the visitor ex- claimed, as he caught sight of Mary. " My sister, Mary Robertson, sir," Hunt explained. " Mary, let me introduce Mr. Miles, from the North, who is going to eat breakfast with us." "Good morning, Miss Mary, I am very happy to meet you," the gentleman said, stepping in and re- moving his hat. " Your brother has been good enough to invite me to stay to breakfast, and I am very glad to accept the invitation. You have a snug little home here. Miss Mary." " We are very comfortable here, sir," Mary an- swered, " and if you will take a seat, I will have some breakfast ready in a few minutes, sir." " Mr. Miles " seated himself upon the bench, and somehow it seemed to Hunt as if the cabin looked larger and grander than it had ever looked before, with so fine a gentleman sitting in it. Mary soon 116 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. had the coffee boihng and a pan of spoon bread made, and the Welshman browned nicely for the table. When all was ready the table was spread, and the visitor did full justice to the smoking Welshman, making, as he ate, some humorous remarks about eat- ing a subject of a friendly nation. " This is altogether the j oiliest meal I have eaten in North Carolina, Miss Mary," he declared ; but be- fore either of them could answer their attention was attracted by something that sounded remarkably like the music of a brass band, and Hunt, excusing himself for a moment, stepped outside to see what such an unusual demonstration could mean. He was just in time to see a file of about thirty marines in uniform and with muskets, commanded by an officer with a sword, and accompanied by a band of six pieces, march through the gate into his garden patch, the band playing. It was the most imposing military display he had ever seen, and the sight almost took him off his feet, and made him reflect for a moment that the Civil War was surelv over. By this time the officer with the sword was almost up to the door, with the marines and the still-playing band only a few paces behind. "Good morning, sir," the officer said to Hunt, stepping forward and giving a military salute. " Is General Miles in this house ?" " There is a gentleman here named Miles," Hunt answered ; but before he could say more the visitor GENERAL MILES EATS A WELSHMAN. 117 himself stood in the doorway, attracted by the noise. Instantly the officer^s cap came off. " Right about face !" he ordered, and the marines and musicians turned as one man, to face the doorway. " Shoulder arms !'' " Present arms !'^ and up went the thirty muskets like one. "General Miles," said the officer, drawing his sword, " we are from the Revenue Cutter Boutwell, sir, and Captain Homson has brought her over to carry you back to New Bern when you are ready to go, sir. She now lies in the river Trent at the mouth of this creek, sir, and we have several boats below the bluff to take you aboard when it suits your convenience, Sir. The gentleman's head was bare, for his shining hat still lay upon the Hyde County bed ; but with the in- stinct of a soldier he instantly drew himself up to his full height, which was considerable, and ordered : " Ground arms !" " At rest !'' "Thank you, sir," he said to the officer, as these orders were executed. " We are just finishing an ex- cellent breakfast, and as I have a hospitable host here I am sure he will be glad to have you step in and take a cup of coffee with us." " I am afraid, sir," the officer replied, following the general, who had stepped up to the bed to get his hat, " that your young host does not know that he has had 118 _ PINE BIDQE PLANTATION. the honor of breakfasting with Major-General Nelson A. Miles, Commander-in-Chief of the United States Army." "Oh, never mind about titles," the general an- swered, with a laugh. "My young host has given me a Welshman for breakfast, which I have enjoyed thoroughly. But I must not keep Captain Howison waiting, if he is in the cutter below. I shall bid my new friends good-bye with great reluctance." As he spoke he stepped outside, followed by the officer from the cutter ; and at the word of command the marines again presented arms. " Ah, these colors belong to the cutter, no doubt," the general exclaimed, as he noticed that one of the men carried, instead of a musket, a small brass-tipped staff, to which was attached a beautiful silken Ameri- can flag, ornamented Avith gold fringe. " The colors of the captain's gig, sir," the officer answered, with a salute, and the marine stepped forward. " I am sure that Captain Howison will allow me to take them," the general continued, as he took the flag and staff that the man held out toward him. " Huntley !" he called ; and when Hunt ran out with a prompt " Yes, sir !" the general put the staff into his hands. " Do me the favor," he said, " to accept this testi- mony of my gratitude for your hospitality and an excellent breakfast. Take it, my boy, it is the flag of your country. When you establish a plantation GENERAL MILES EATS A WELSHMAN. 119 here, as I am sure you will, let these colors fly over it. Love and respect these stars and stripes. Hunt, and let them never see you do an unworthy action. Do not think yourself surrounded by enemies because you are in the South, but remember always that North Carolinians are loyal citizens of the United States, who will help you to honor her flag. Now with renewed thanks and good wishes I must bid you and your sister good morning." " Thank you, sir !" Hunt managed to say, as in obedience to an order the marines formed a double line, and escorted the general toward the bluff", the band playing. " Mary ! Mary ! see here !" Hunt cried, standing in the open door-way, where his sister hastened to join him. " Do you know what tune that is the band is playing?" he asked. " That is ' The Girl I left Behind Me !' " Mary answered, blushing furiously, and bowing her thanks as the officer turned and waved his sword. But there was more to come, for at the very edge of the bluff* General Miles stopped and turned also, and removing his hat, made his young hostess a polite bow. In the excitement, Mary still bowing and smiling, Hunt waved his flag, and they heard the order to " halt !" Waving his cap, the officer ordered, " Three cheers for the young cotton planter and the flag !" and, still cheering, the procession made its way down the steep hillside to the boats that lay in waiting in the creek. 120 PINE BIDGE PLANTATION. " See !'' Hunt cried, as a little cloud of smoke and fire burst from the distant cutter's side. As General Miles stepped into the captain's gig, the cutter fired one gun and dipped her colors. Hunt and his sister ran down to the edge of the bluff, and were just in time to see the procession of row-boats approaching the revenue cutter. All the marines left on board were drawn up at " present arms " at the head of the gangway, and as General Miles set foot upon the deck the little ship fired a salute of fifteen guns, the salute required for a major- general commanding the army, and a few moments later the cutter was steaming leisurely down the river Trent. " It seems like a dream, that the commander of the army should have eaten breakfast with us in our little cabin," Mary declared, when they returned to clear away the remains of the meal. " Yes, but dreams don't leave silk flags trimmed with gold fringe !" Hunt exclaimed. " Of course you saw Mr. Vincent pass us as we were bringing the flag up. But did you notice that he took off his hat to it ? He is a southern man, you know. Ain't I glad that I took off mv hat before the monument to the Con- federate soldiers, when I was in the cemetery over in New Bern a few days ago ? They were brave men, sis, and I am glad that old trouble is all over. We're not here to make war, you know, but to grow cotton." " And to eat Welshmen," Mary laughed, as she drew some ashes over the smouldering embers on the hearth. CHAPTER X. FIEST COTTON PLANTS. After the entertainment of their distinguished visitor Hunt's work went steadily on, in the cotton- seed oil mill or wherever he could make daily wages, and Mary continued to increase her little store of money by selling fish in New Bern. Sometimes when the Welshmen failed she had speckled perch, white perch, or chub to offer. This daily task, however, did not prevent her from ornamenting the yard with the flowers of which she was fond, nor did their united labors hinder Hunt and his sister in their efforts to procure the smaller live stock which was so necessary to them. As the two drove in the ox-cart through James City one day Mary had a particular reason for feeling grateful that the eye of General Miles was not upon them at that moment. " It would be dreadful,'' she laughed, " if he were to see this." "No, that would be nothing," Hunt answered, laughing in his turn, " we are doing no more than our duty, as he always does himself; these pigs and chickens would be just as likely to run away from him as they are to run from us." It was the pigs and chickens that caused the delay 121 122 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. in returning home. They had visited James City ex- pressly to buy enough small stock to inhabit their poultry yard and pigpen. Six well-grown hens and two roosters and four full-sized ducks and a drake lay on the bottom of the cart with their legs tied, and in the basket were an old hen and a brood of a dozen little chicks ; these alone they might have controlled, but there also lay on the bottom of the cart two large pigs of the variety known as ^' razor backs," and a litter of six young pigs, all black as coal. It was not Hunt's fault that the two old pigs freed themselves from their fastenings and scampered like mad through the narrow streets of James City and across many unkempt back yards, or that the little ones dashed away after them squealing. In the ex- citement several of the hens loosened their fastenings and joined in the run, making it necessary for both Hunt and his sister to chase them until caught. This made great sport for the James City citizens, watching a white boy and girl chase chickens, and they had much advice to give and many remarks to make, but on the whole they were civil and respectful in manner, except in the cases of several young colored men who had only too evidently been tasting the wine of the country. These young fellows managed several times to put themselves directly in Hunt's way to obstruct him, and when he was far enough away for their safety they shouted uncivil remarks at Mary about " po' white trash from the No'th wukkin' like niggahs an' takin' FIRST COTTON PLANTS. 123 the bread from da moufs ;" but seeing that they had been drinking, she paid no attention to them. When the runaway animals were all restored to their proper places, Hunt told his sister that she was invariably to let him know if any of the residents of James City were uncivil to her. " They are always civil when they are sober,'' he added, ^' but the corn whiskey sold in these little shops sometimes makes them ugly, and one of these fine days some fellow will go just about far enough to make him regret it.'' "Oh, I hope you won't have any trouble with them !" Mary exclaimed. " They are always very obliging when sober, and the drunken ones are not worth paying any attention to." " I am not looking for trouble, sis," Hunt laughed. " If they want to see a white fellow work they might come around some day when I am planting cotton." With the fowls in their places and the pigs in the pen, much enlivening the little place, Mary had less time for fishing and selling her catch, as she insisted upon taking entire charge of them ; but both she and Hunt looked forward to the day when the pigs, having grown both in size and in numbers, should be ready to ornament the smoke-house. " Ah, Hunt, Hunt, do come here !" she cried, one morning after going out to the pen to feed them. " There is a yellow pig with the black ones, and now we have seven little piggies instead of six ; just come and see them." 124 PINE niDGE PLANTATION. ^' Oh, you can't fool me in that way !'' Hunt laughed. " Of course you know that the yellow little piggy is Buster, and he seems just tickled to death/' " Yes, that is Buster," Mary admitted, half smoth- ered with laughter, " and I am so glad for him, for he has had no little companions. I think he recognizes long-lost brothers in the black piggies." The daily feeding of corn to the live stock was a constant reminder that their own corn should be grow- ing, and by the first of April as much land as could be spared for the purpose was plowed and planted in corn, which, with plenty of fertilizer and under the warm April sun, soon showed its tiny green blades. In the month's interval between corn-planting time and cotton-planting time Hunt put up some shelves in the cabin to hold the books that he intended to buy. This and hoeing his smaller crops took much of his spare time, but by the first of May all was ready for the first venture in cotton. " What fimny times for planting things !" Mary exclaimed one day while they were preparing the corn ground. " Only a little earlier than ours at home," Hunt answered. " We plant corn here by the first of April and cotton by the first of May. And, by the way, sis," he continued, ^' I am going over to town to-day to buy the fertilizer for the cotton ; there's no use trying to grow cotton without fertilizer Mr. Burrus tells me, and we shall need two hundred pounds to the acre ; that will make eight hundred pounds for FIRST COTTON PLANTS. 125 our four acres of cotton, which will cost us eight dollars, as it sells for twenty dollars a ton." "And how much cotton ought that make us?'' Mary asked. " Half a bale to the acre is a good average for new land/' Hunt answered. " So our four acres ought to produce two bales if we have no bad accidents." "Why, what do you mean by accidents?" Mary asked. "Isn't cotton a sure crop after it is once planted ?" " No crop is sure," Hunt replied ; " a long dry spell soon after planting w^ould damage it very much ; dry weather does not hurt it so much after it has grown a little, for the cotton plant has a long tap root to draw up moisture from the lower ground, but too much rain may hurt it then, and, besides that, it may be injured by a nasty little insect called the cotton louse. So you see cotton is no more sure than any other crop, but we must do our part toward making it grow." When the cotton land was prepared for planting it was smooth and level, for Hunt had learned that the deep "water furrows" needed in rolling land were wholly unnecessary in that flat country. He made the drills three feet and four inches apart and sowed the grayish white cotton seeds much like planting peas. When the plants were a few inches high he made a " scraper," in imitation of the one used by Mr. Vincent, and scraped the ground on both sides of the rows to destroy the young weeds. Then a fort- 126 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. night later, with Mary's help, he went over the rows with a hoe and cut out the superfluous plants, leaving the " hills" about sixteen inches apart and three plants to the hill. This, as he knew from what he had been told, was entirely different from the more southern cotton culture, but was the method in use in North Carolina. "Aren't they beautiful little plants?" Mary fre- quently asked, as she joyfully watched their increase in size, " and they are going to do more to increase our little stock of money than all the fish and all the firewood and all the working in the mill." When the plants began to bloom, before the middle of July, Mary declared that their beauty fairly eclipsed her choicest flowers, but amid the cotton hills and the corn hills the little weeds appeared at such a rate that Hunt was left little time to work for wages, although at that season there was an almost constant demand for his labor on Mr. Vincent's truck farm. By that time there were books upon the shelves, and whenever either of them visited New Bern a copy of the New Bern daily Jom^nal was waiting for them in the post-office, for Mary had subscribed for it for three months, out of her fish money, that Hunt should be kept informed of the market price of cotton and the crop prospects, and perhaps having a little curiosity of her own in the matter. " I am just pleased to death. Hunt," she said more than once, " to see this cotton growing. You say we ought to have half a bale to the acre, and that will FIRST COTTON PLANTS. 127 make us two bales from our four acres ; it is worth about five cents a pound now, and as a bale weighs five hundred pounds, that is twenty-five dollars a bale, or fifty dollars for our two bales." " Yes, but do not count your chickens before they are hatched," Hunt laughed. " That is very much like a girPs figuring. We may not get two bales, or the price may go below five cents, for it varies very much ; and, anyhow, there are a good many expenses to be deducted from what we may get for it. There is the picking, for instance, and the ginning and baling." " Oh, the picking !" Mary exclaimed. " That is something that has bothered me very much. We could pick it ourselves, only we know nothing about such work. How in the world are we to get so much cotton picked ?" " Wait till we get the cotton before you worry about picking it," Hunt laughed again, " for all the darkies about here are expert cotton pickers and want that work in the cotton season. They sling an old bag with a slit in it over their shoulders to pick into, and get forty cents a hundred pounds for the picking." " * Forty cents a hundred pounds ' !" Mary exclaimed. " Why, I should think it would take anyone a week to pick a hundred pounds of such light stuff as cotton." " Don't you believe it," Hunt answered. " You see the seeds and the cotton are all in the bolls together, and are picked at the same time ; that makes what is called seed cotton before it is ginned, for I suppose 128 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. you know that ginning is separating the cotton from the seeds, but probably you do not know that in a fiekl of cotton the seeds weigh just twice as much as the cotton, so that the cotton for a five-hundred-pound bale weighs fifteen hundred pounds while in the form of seed cotton. Thus the pickers make very fair wages, you see, even at forty cents a hundred pounds." " Well, I am glad to know that," Mary retorted, " and if we can get anything like fifty dollars from our first crop of cotton, that will go far toward paying for the adjoining piece of laud that I know you want to buy so that we can raise more cotton next year." "Well, that depends," Hunt said, reflectively. " We'll see first how this crop of cotton turns out. Of course I should like to have the money to buy the land, but as it is Avoodland, I think I can sell enough firewood from it to pay for it. Anyhow, it's better than working for wages," he added ; " isn't it, sis — with nothing to look forward to ? Whatever our cotton may sell for, we have our comfortable little home." Fast as the cotton and corn and smaller crops grew, the little black pigs kept pace with them, and every day made it seem more likely that there soon would be both smoke and pork in the smoke-house. Fires for warmth had long been a thing of the past, but, in their determination to save every possible cent, the evening light still came from what the colored neighbors called " lighter knots," which answered the purpose admirably. CHAPTER XI. AN ENCX)UNTER WITH DRUNKEN NEGROES. With his daily work in his own fields Hunt was now a real southern planter on a small scale, and both he and Mary were well browned by their constant ex- posure to the North Carolina suUo There seemed to be no end to the ploughing and scraping and hoeing in corn and cotton fields, but as the weather favored and the precious plants increased in size every day they worked cheerfully, watching the daily growth as care- fully as a mother watches her child. Hunt's work for wages was, of course, much interrupted while the growing crops needed his attention, but the river and creek still afforded an abundance of fish, and rather than let their income cease entirely, he assisted his sister with her little fishery, and soon took a leading part in that industry, for he found that by taking the fish over to New Bern to the fish-market wharf in the Maria Louise he could sell them in considerable quan- tities to the market men, and so save his sister the labor of peddling them in the city. To make time for this both brother and sister were frequently at work in their own fields before the sun had risen, and continued their labor till the darkness made its further continuance impossible. 9 129 130 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. As the season advanced the large Welshmen became scarce in their own neighborhood, but by watching the native fishermen, who were mostly colored, they found that they could still be taken in paying quantities several miles up the Trent River, particularly near a beautiful place that the fishermen called their " hotel," where a thick pine grove on a bluff on the river bank afforded shelter from both sun and rain, and near which large quantities of speckled and white perch and chub and catfish could also be taken. It did not take them long to learn that as the catfish brought a very low price in the market, they could most profit- ably be taken home to eat while the others were sold. Mary at first had some hesitation about handling the giant catfish with their great mouths and spike-like horns, but as she was determined to be a real fisher- girl she soon overcame this, and Hunt gallantly in- sisted that, as she was the originator of the fishing business, the fish profits should all belong to her. One day when they had earned the liberty to fish for almost the entire day by working extra hours on many previous days, they went up the Trent as far as the " hotel,'' and were returning with the Maria Louise well loaded with fine fish to land Mary at the plan- tation before Hunt went over to the market to sell the catch. They had just reached the mouth of the creek when they saw a boat approaching manned by three young colored men, who plainly showed by their bois- terous actions that they had been drinking. There was no doubt that these young men were going fishing, ENCOUNTER WITH DRUNKEN NEGROES. 131 and Hunt thought he recognized in at least one or two of them men who had sometimes jeered at him as he passed through James City. His relations with his colored neighbors had, on the whole, been extremely friendly, and he was sure that these men in the boat would not molest them if they were sober, but the vile form of whiskey made from corn is sold very cheaply in James City, and as the men headed their boat toward the little sloop, singing and shouting and rocking their own boat, he deter- mined that the present was a good opportunity to show these tippling youngsters that he and his sister were not to be insulted with impunity. '^ Now don't say a word to them,'' he said to his sister, " for they may go on up the river and 'tend to their business ;" but they were not left long in doubt as to the intentions of the three young colored men, for the boat rapidly approached them, and w^hen near by it stopped and the youngsters began to jeer at them. " Pore white trash," they shouted, pointing at them. " Dey takes de bread outen de pore niggahs mouf. Got kicked outen de Norf, did you ; couldn' make no livin' at home, eh ? so come down yere to rob the pore niggah ; dey's worser dan niggahs, sich pore white trash." ^^ Don't pay any attention to them, Mary," Hunt cautioned his sister ; " and if they don't keep civil tongues in their heads, I'll give them something they won't want." 132 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. " He say he give niggah something one of the youngsters shouted, overhearing the words. " He give nothin'; he only white trash hisself, niggah give white trash somethin'.'' Words had become too tame to give vent to their feelings, and all three began to splash water with their hands and oars, directing it as nearly as possible so that it should strike both Hunt and his sister. " Now you stop that," Hunt shouted, stepping up into the bow of his own boat, leaving Mary seated amidships with the oars. " Stop that this minute, or 1^11 give you something you haven^t had in a long time.'' The splashing and jeering were redoubled at this, and Hunt turned his head in time to see a great splash of the water strike Mary almost squarely in the face. " Pull up one good stroke," he called to her. The row-boat lay broadside on with the sloop's bow point- ing directly toward it, and the few feet between them was rapidly lessened under Mary's stroke. " Steady now," he cried, and the words were hardly out of his mouth before he sprang forward into the air and came down with his whole weight and force of motion upon the rail of the narrow row-boat. There could be only one result to his unexpected attack, and under his weight the row-boat capsized like a shot, and the negroes were thrown into the water. Hunt, of course, went overboard also, but two or three vigorous strokes carried him to the bow of his own boat. ENCOUNTER WITH DRUNKEN NEGROES. 133 The three negroes were not sobered by their sudden immersion, but forgetting their enmity to Hunt, they began to quarrel and fight among themselves, and during the struggle one of them approached near where Mary sat, and took hold as if to clamber aboard. " Let go of that,'' Mary shouted, springing to her feet with an uplifted oar in her hands. " Let go of that or I'll break your arms." " For de Lawd's sake, missy, doan' kill a pore niggah, we kan't none of us swim, some of us niggahs are a going to drownd, missy, if you doan' help us." Another of the negroes was evidently sinking, shouting lustily all the while for help. " Here, take hold of this oar," Hunt cried, as he took up the other oar and pushed an end of it toward the sinking man. The overturned boat was now well within reach, and holding fast to the oar with one hand, he reached forward with the other and righted it ; by this time, however, all three of the men were shouting for help, and seemed to be in danger of drowning, and as he was already wet. Hunt instantly sprang overboard and went to their assistance. One by one he helped them to their own boat, and held it steady while they climed in over the stern. Then as they were all safe, and realizing that he had left Mary alone, he swam back to his own boat and climbed in over the bow. The thanks that he then had to receive gave him 134 PINE RtDGE PLANTATION. more embarrassment than any other part of the episode, for the negroes, finding themselves safe, were profuse in their thanks. " T'ank you, boss, t'ank you berry much," they shouted each in turn. " You done save pore niggah's life, boss, and pore niggah he not forget you.'' "Very well," Hunt answered, "that's all right, I'd rather do you a favor than an injury, but if you ever bother me or my sister any more I'll chuck you into the Trent River again ; now you remember that." " We will, boss," the men shouted, in unison. " You ain't no white trash, an' yo' heart's as white as yo' skin. We'se you' frien's now, boss, an' we'se goin' on a fishin'." " It's nothing at all under this hot sun," Hunt answered, when Mary urged him to hasten home for dry clothes ; " these clothes will be dry in five minutes, and they may as well dry on me as any- where. I'll just set you ashore and then go over to the market." But Mary insisted that if Hunt was going in his wet clothes, she was going with him, and each took an oar and the boat was headed for the market Avharf. Before they reached the wharf the powerful summer sun of North Carolina had dried them both, and Mary was delighted when Hunt steered the boat up into the slip where lay many little fishing craft, and some larger boats with both fish and turtle. The slip was what would have been about fiftv feet of the lower end of Middle Street, but dredged out to give an ENCOUNTER WITH DRUNKEN NEGROES. 135 entrance to boats. The sidewalks of the street con- tinued down to the river on both sides of the slip, and partly on these and partly in the half ruinous wooden buildings that lined tliem was the fish market. "And is this the fish market you talk so much about ?" Mary asked. " Why, it looks as if it might fall down any day. The only building on the slip that is painted or kept in repair is that uncomfortable- looking one with the big signs reading ' Palace bar- room.' It does not look much like a palace, and I think its signs must be bigger than its business." " Very likely they are,'' Hunt replied. " I do not think that any bar-room in New Bern does much business. It always seems to me that there is very little drinking here. To be sure, we have seen a few of the colored people drunk, but you must remember that out of six thousand colored people in New Bern and two or three thousand in James City, we have never seen more than a half dozen drunken ones." " But I don't see what becomes of all the fish that is brought here," said Mary. " We bring enough ourselves, I imagine, almost to supply the city of New Bern, and the colored fishermen and these large fish- ing boats are always bringing them in." " This is a great market for fish," Hunt replied. " The people of New Bern use a very small proportion of what are brought in. Great quantities are shipped from here to the large cities of the North, principally to New York. That is why we generally get good prices for our fish ; if we had only New Bern to sup- 136 PIJ^E RIDGE PLANTATION. ply we should get very little, but the dealers charge the people as much as they could get from the whole- salers in New York, after deducting the freight. That is the reason that shad early in the season some- times sell in this market for seventy-five cents and often for one dollar a pair. We have not quite got up to shad catching yet, as they will not bite at a hook, but have to be caught with a seine ; but we may come to that some day if we ever need to depend largely on our fishery.^' " This market, you see/^ he continued, " is at the foot of Middle Street, and the steamboat landing is at the foot of Craven Street, one block way, as we should say in New York, or one square, as they always say here. Middle Street is well named, for it runs right through the middle of the city. It is only a few steps from here to the cotton gin where we hope in a short time to have some cotton to sell." Hunt stepped ashore and in a few minutes disposed of his fish to one of the dealers, after which he tied the boat and asked Mary to come ashore, saying that there were one or two places he wished to show her. When she came he took her up Middle Street past some handsome brick business buildings. " There, I want you to look at that one," he said, pointing to the Citizens' Bank on the opposite side of the street. " Mr. Burrus tells me that if we do well with the cotton I ought to open a bank account in New Bern, and he has introduced me to Mr. Thomas Green, the president of the Citizens' Bank. I feel ENCOUNTER WITH DRUNKEN NEGROES. 137 almost at home when I pass it, because Mr. Green is a cousin by marriage of a gentleman we both know of in New York." " I don't know anyone in New York/' Mary objected. "No, but you have heard of the New York Central Railroad, I suppose," Hunt laughed. " The main line runs six or eight miles north of our old home in Ontario County, and the old line, or Auburn branch, as it is called, goes right through Phelps, which is very near us. Mr. George H. Daniels, the general passenger-agent of that big road, had charge of a government steamer on the Neuse River for several years during the Civil War, and while here he married the daughter of Captain Gates, who still lives in Broad Street. As this lady was a cousin of Mr. Green, that made Mr. Daniels his cousin by marriage." " Why, this looks like a graveyard right in the middle of the city," Mary interrupted. " That is just what it is," Hunt answered. " And this is one of the things I brought you here to show you. This is the churchyard of the large Episcopal Church, where the great parish church was built by the British Government many years ago, when North Carolina was a British colony. I want to take you right through the churchyard, where you will see by the old tomb-stones that many of the people buried here came from Connecticut, as many of the early settlers of New Bern were from that State." 138 . PINE RIDGE PLANTATION, " Here, you see/' he continued, " is a gate leading from the churchyard into a private garden. I want to take you through the private garden into Broad Street, for it belongs to Major Graham Daves, and he has invited me to visit it whenever I can/' " This immense house," he went on, " belongs to him. Major Daves is the president of the Roanoke Island Association. I am very much interested in Roanoke Island, Avhich is in the sound, not far from here, for on it was estabhshed one of the very first settlements in America, even before Jamestown was settled. The first colonists all disappeared, and for a long time it was thought that they had starved ; but this was a mistake, for they were massacred by the Indians, and a great many of the early settlers in New Bern were killed by the same savages." " I am interested too in Roanoke Island," Mary said, when they reached Broad Street, " but I am more interested just now in the plantation on Brice Creek. Let us go home before we are tempted to spend any of our fish-money in the stores.'^ CHAPTER XII. A GREAT RISE IN COTTON. All through the summer Hunt and Mary were in expectation of very hot weather, because they were far enough south to be among the cotton fields ; but the hottest days of summer were no warmer than the weather they had been accustomed to in the North, for there was nearly always a refreshing breeze from the rivers and sounds. When the crops attained such height and size that their foliage prevented the weeds from growing, and much less labor was required on the plantation, at Hunt's suggestion Mary made herself a bathing-suit of cheap flannel, and, when not at work for wages, he frequently took her down to the creek, where, under his tuition, she soon became an expert swimmer. These comparatively restful days, however, were not to last long, for, with the coming of September, the cotton bolls were beginning to open, and both the young planters became impatient to turn their first crop into a bank account. " Just see how white the cotton field is. Hunt,'' Mary often exclaimed. " It is surely time to begin picking, but I don't see how we are going to get the pickers." " That is easy enough," Hunt retorted ; " if I tell 139 140 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. one or two of the darkeys that we want pickers they will soon all know it, for news spreads among them very fast. What you tell one colored person you might as well tell every negro in Craven County. I believe it is the same over in New Bern, only the white people there have telephones in their houses, and new^s that can't travel fast enough by word of mouth goes over the wire. I will tell one or two darkeys to-morrow, and you will see plenty of pickers here before the week is out." He was correct in this prediction, for the negroes are fond of roaming by night and visiting one another's cabins. Before the week was ended, the pickers who applied for work wxre enough almost to make a regi- ment. There were able-bodied men and cripples, women both old and young, and boys and girls of almost all sizes, ranging in color from light yellow to the deepest black, and all ragged and slouchy. For- tunately for Hunt, cotton-picking was such an estab- lished industry, and the price so well understood, that no special bargain with them was necessary. After a few days the picking began, and Mary kept a close watch upon the movements of the pickers, for, as she said, she had not been able to earn much money recently, but she was determined to save a little by doing some of the picking herself. Hunt also slung a bag over his shoulders and fell to picking, but at the close of the first day's work it became apparent that some means of weighing the cotton picked by each picker was needed. A YOUTHFUL COTTON-PICKER. A GREAT RISE IN COTTON. 141 Mr. Vincent, like the good neighbor that he was, drove over with his own scales in the cart. " I know you are going to need them," he said, " and you can just as well use them as not, for I have others." Hunt did the weighing and paying-off himself every evening, having the pickers empty their bags, after weighing, into a number of empty barrels that he had provided, and that he kept under cover in Bob's stable. ^' See here, Fannie !" he called to the pony one evening, after examining the little book in which he kept account of the number of pounds picked, "you're to have a double feed of oats to-day, old girl, for I have paid for picking nearly seventeen hundred pounds ; that means plenty of feed for you next win- ter. Miss Fannie, and maybe an extra bite for the rest of us. Here, Rover ! here. Buster !" he called to the dogs that were in the barn and much interested in the work, " I am going to bring you a lot of nice bones from New Bern ; just remind me of it next time I go over, for I shall be going soon to sell cotton." Nearly a month passed before the cotton was all picked, the fields stripped clean, and the pickers all dismissed. Then, at length, came the eventful day when the cotton was to be ginned and disposed of. The little book by that time showed a record of nearly three thousand pounds picked. " Now, Mary," Hunt told his sister, " I am off for the cotton gin to-morrow, and if you want to make 142 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. yourself useful while I am away, you hire a darkey to pull up all those old cotton stalks and throw them in a heap, so we can burn them, and you watch him or he won't half do the work. I know the custom is to let the stalks stand and rot, but I don't like that, for there is no reason why an old cotton field in the South shoidd not be kept as clean as our old corn field in the North. Bob had been comfortably munching grass and leaves and corn for some months, but there was work before him when the hauling of cotton began, for at least two trips to New Bern must be made. For con- taining the loose cotton the barrels were used, and some bags or anything that would hold it. Never before had Hunt watched the operations of the ginning-machinery with such interest as when it was his own cotton that was drawn up in the big pneumatic tube ; but he felt himself a cotton planter, indeed, when the big compressor had to come down twice to press his cotton into two bales, and when fully a ton of the grayish- white seed was ejected by the machine. " I do not need to ask you the price," he said to young Mr. Burrus, the proprietor, when the two snow-white cubes of pressed cotton lay before them. * • No ; it is the same old price,'' Mr. Burrus an- swered, " and you have worked here often enough to know what it is : forty cents a hundred pounds for the ginning, and one dollar and twenty-five cents a bale for the ties and cover ; but you have here a ton of A GREAT RISE IN COTTON. 143 seed, which is worth twelve dollars, so that you owe us four dollars for the ginning, and two dollars and fifty cents for the two bales, making a total of six dollars and fifty cents : there is a balance in your favor of five dollars and fifty cents if you leave us the seed/' " Well, I will leave you the seed," Hunt answered, as he pocketed the five dollars and fifty cents. He then went down the dusty stairs to the street, and drove Bob and the cart up to the door to receive the two bales of cotton. After they were loaded he drove down Craven Street toward the cotton exchange to sell them, but as he w^as passing the office of Burrus & Gray, Mr. Burrus stepped out and hailed him: " Hello, here, my young planter !'' he said, " that looks like cotton ; you don't mean to say you got both those bales off of your land the first year, do you ?" " Yes, sir, both of them, and some good silver be- sides," Hunt answered proudly, slapping his pocket where his five dollars and fifty cents lay. " Well, you know I deal in cotton," Mr. Burrus told him ;" but whether you sell it to me or to some other dealer you will get just the same price for it, because cotton has a standard market price. But see here, young man, do you know the price of cotton to-day ?" " I think it has been in the neighborhood of five or six cents for a long time, sir," Hunt answered. " Ah ! I thought maybe you did not know the 144 PINE RIDGE PLANTATION. great cotton news of to-day, and that is why I stopped you/' Mr. Burrus laughed. '^ The price of cotton is nine and a half cents to-day, and if you want to sell those two bales to me at that price, drive right over to the scales till we weigh them, and I will take them/' He drove over to the scales, and, with the assistance of several of Mr. Burrus's porters, the bales were soon found to weigh exactly one thousand pounds. " Good enough !'' said Mr. Burrus, who had stepped over to inspect the weighing. " Then the bales are mine, and if you will come right over to my office the check for them shall be yours.'' Hunt drove back to the office, and soon came out, bearing in his hand a narrow slip of paper, which read : J^ew Bern, JV. C, Oct. 8, 1900. Pay to Huntley Robertson or Order, JW7ie^z/-;^z;e____________ To*]j Dollars. ■^