The Entailed Hat; Or, Patty Cannon's Times

terview with a decision and fierceness that left paralysis upon the gentleman's mind. He saw, in sad fancy, the exec

ich he had raised so much state and local fame; people would say: "Custis was a fool, and deceived him

because he is of their class. He is a lender to many of the rich. Who could have suspected his intelligence? His address, too? He h

ed by the entran

master, boy?"

where his daddy and mammy died. It's d

d be strong to-night, that, like Judas of old, his bowels may drop out!

lonely. Dat's enough to spile angels. But a gooder man I never knowed, 'cept in de onpious sperrit. He's proud as

e of marriage contracts. It's always assumed, and never expected. You

s, dat man has power to make him loved. Your darter might

bed to think of the dread alternatives of the coming week; but, volup

no door in the hollow doorway, no sash in the one gaping window; the step was broken leading to the sill, and some of the weather-boarding had rotted from the skeleton. The old end-chimney bore it toughly up, however, and the low brick props under the corners stood plumb. Within lay a single room with open beams, a sort

s whiskey. I drink it to keep out the malaria, and partly as a communion cup; for to-

said the negro. "Dey had hard times, but did no sin.

er. "Go up into the loft, and sleep till you are

ard-like door. Milburn sat before the fire, and looked into it lo

red to be sold into slavery, driven through the streets of market-towns, placed on troop ships between the decks, among the horses, and set up at auction in Barbadoes, like the blacks; whence they in time continued onward westward. One, the fortunate possessor of some competence, sailed his own ship across the Atlantic, and delivered up to Massachusetts her governor and g

hese things he took up a portio

ded. Its volcanic origin was forgotten when it ran with sand and gravel away from the mountain vein and upland ore along the low, alluvial bar, till, like an oyster, the iron is dredged from the stagnant pool, impure, inefficacious, corrupted. So is it with man, whose magnetic sp

airs, and a weasel dashed out and shot through the door; he ascended the steep, short stairs, and with a torch examined the black shingles, but nothing was

is left to me, not even a sign, down a cent

head back, so did it; as he retired from it, the hat enlarged, until the little room could hardly hold its shadow. Retiring again, he li

ould mock them all. But once the family brain expanded to a hat, and that survived the race. I am the Quaker

h could increase, credulous and sanguine, tender and laborious, Milburn's sire nursed his forest patches as if they were presently to be rich plantations, and was ever "pricing" negroes, mules, tools, and implements, in expectation of buying them. Nothing could diminish his con

shach sat, groaning amid their many offspring, saw death with weakness creep upon each other-death without

t how ill he was, in his dependence on his wife; "take the horse, an

d and barefooted, and almost crazy with excitement, until he entered the shining streets of the sandhilled town, and sensitive

rising above the woods, the flat fields of corn everywhere bounded by forest, and the small white houses of

istmas kingly with a cake. She could name a little chicken "Meshach," and every egg it laid was a new toy. A mocking-bird caught in the swamp became one of the family by her kindness; would it ever sing again? The religion they knew was all of her. The poor slaves saw no difference in mistresses wh

shed his nag along, and enter

tle children, huddling about the form, lifted their wail; t

ut on the sandy road and hummock-field some light was shining, like hopefulness against hope; the farm was ploughed no more; the ungratef

n, boy! It

answered the n

od there, flames burst out of the old hut and glistened on the evergreen forest, lighting the tops of the mossy cypresses in the mill-pond, and revealing the forms of the sandy fields. Before he could start back Samson saw his

the filial incendiary. "Hencefort

t tile up in the l

mfort like a home, fine as de hat may be, mean as de roof!

ly, "will cover me where I go. Such rotted ro

he fire in silen

, finally. "I ain't got no place to go an' hid

Milburn. "Now for the h