Old Times in Dixie Land

in those war-times, and my seminary of five young girls was often a victim to enn

r, with plenty of milk, eggs and butter, fresh fruit and vegetables, to say nothing of fowls galore, we survived. The girls m

gave up; the negroes would drive the marauding cattle out and rebuild the fences every time they were destroyed. On one of these occasions I heard Miss Emma Chalfant say to Uncle Primus: "I shall tell on you when your people come back here; I heard you curse an

and flowers. The delectable odor of Sweet Olive-a mingled essence of peach, pineapple, and orange-flower-produced in her a frenz

a total blindness worse than a loss of actual sight. Mr. Benton was fond of fruit but he never noticed or admired the flowers from which the fruit was formed. N

n, "it requires tact and perse

f I had the bulb

ckage of plants were put in the carriage for the young lady to t

nished. Several ancient cedar trees, ragged and untrimmed, and two thrifty oaks stood on what should have been a lawn, and a stragglin

er treasures to her mother, and was e

ace in the vegetable garden for the pr

him mad, otherwise I should not have brought these things home with me. The truth is I would not swap a row of

said Patsy. "The summer-houses are like fairy

after she took sick and they all died, and she herself came mighty near doing the same thing; so she gave up the whole business, like a sensible woman. Tom is hoeing potatoes just now, and you must no

dauntless energy of a true gardener;

ful tending. In a short time she gathered roses and violets, and her golden-banded lilies shot up several tall stems crowned w

vening before, he had seen her standing in the bean-arbor with Walter Jones, who seemed lost in his admir

le a foolish girl. It ain't no suitable place anyhow for girls to be dodging around in with their beaux. My mind's

garden armed with a hoe. He went to the lily-bed and began the work of destructio

is a-workin' Miss Patsy's gard

a-cuttin' an' choppin' up everyth

tsy'll tar up de whole plantation. You listen out when she gits up en comes down-stairs. He ain't don

d out at the top of his voice, "Come in, old fellow, and take breakfast. Sissy's asleep yet, but we have kil

ined Mr. Benton on the porch, where that gentleman was sippin

en butter, printing it with her prettiest molds. She knew Walter was there. She set on the breakfast table a vase filled with w

o see what was the matter. Patsy was wringing her hands and crying. She pointed to the ru

od to bellow over it like that, Sis. Breakfa

of entreaties. She called down some anathemas on the perpetrato

unded things, and don't let me hear any more about it

d through their tears at each other, and were silent, while re

s I pleased with my own. Anyhow, I would not give one boy," looking at

e his sweetheart and fly away with her forever. He took a hasty leave, and

feelings as well as she c

he is my father,

of the filial respect du

father," she an

. Tom had started in the spring wagon to go three miles down the river for some young trees. Jeff sat on the seat beside Tom. When

, "and ride my horse, while I sho

g suddenly to a tree which had fallen, they bounded over it, and the vehicle was upset, and Tom and Mr. Benton were violently thrown out. Tom escaped with a few b

been killed, and was filled with heart-breaking grief and remorse. "Poor father!" she cri

e was soon in a fair way to recovery. In the meanwhile, Patsy and her mother devoted themselves

your mother have waited on me and taken good care of me for many weeks." He glanced at his spliced leg and his swollen arm, and continued: "I could not do much cutting up things in the garden a

y, "we don't care now," and she smiled sweetl

to marry him, and you had better give up any foolish notion you may have taken to Walter Jones, and take the doctor. He is the best chance you will ever have. He is doing well in his professio

girl, "don't ask me

id Mr. Benton, flying into a rage, "and if yo

ruck with co

ound without assistance. Patsy's he

the butter or bring her father his early morni

leg," said Mr. Benton, after his

he wondered what made Patsy so thoughtless and undutiful,

id Mrs. Benton, "and she thought marri

ys controlled by their male relations. Nothing on God's earth can emancipate a

said his wife, "and she seems to b

me up fifty dollars' worth of what he calls first-class stuff on the last boat, and I am going over to give it to Pat to plant. Tom shall do the

glad!" said

s much as I destroyed. Pat's a trump, anyhow, and I shall never go back

boats, and to reprove me sharply for having any friendly interviews or even civilities with our "kidney-footed enemies," as he called them, yet at the same time he would