Alice Wilde: The Raftsman's Daughter. A Forest RomanceVictor, Metta Victoria Fuller
General
Alice Wilde: The Raftsman's Daughter. A Forest Romance
Victor, Metta Victoria Fuller
Logging -- Fiction; Love stories; Sawmills -- Michigan -- Fiction; Young men -- New York (State) -- New York -- Fiction
"We's goin' to lib soon whar' de clo'es massa gives us 'll do us some
good, Saturn. We can go to meetin' once more like 'spectable colored
quality should. An' de house 'll be bran new, and I'm to keep de keys
of all de closets myself--and young missus will set at de head ob de
table, wid plenty of silber, as my missuses have allers done. An'
you'll have to have some pride about you, and get ober bein' so sleepy.
Nebber hear nor see any ting so cur'us as we goin' back into dat berry
family. Now, Saturn, don't you let me cotch you cookin' or eatin' a
single egg, 'cause I want 'em all for cake. Masser only brought home
twenty dozen, which ain't near enough. I want ebery one dem pullets
lays. An' you feed em chickens up good and fat an' dem wild turkeys
in de pen. Dis isn't a bad country for a cook, arter all. I've been
reck'nin' up, an' I find we can have wild turkey and partridges and
salmon and ven'sen and chicken, and masser's brought home ebery ting
from de grocery-stores a pusson could ask. Whar's dat citron now?
Saturn, has you been in dat citron? Laws, I cotch you in _dat_, you'll
nebber forget it! Stop eatin' dem raisins! I declar' to gracious, ef I
trus' you to chop a few raisins for me, you eat half of 'em up. Cl'ar
out de kitchen--immejetly! I'd rudder get 'long alone."
Poor Saturn had to "fly round" more than was agreeable to his
temperament; but he contrived to keep up his strength and his spirits
upon stolen sweets, and he tried to be excessively useful.
"Wall, wall, his arpetite does beat all; he's gettin' ole and childish,
my nigger is and I s'pose I mus' humor him a little. His heart is set
on de good tings ob dis worl'. I'se 'fraid he'll hate to gib up eatin'
and sleepin' when he comes to die. Dar ain't no eatin' and drinkin'
_thar_, Saturn; no marryin' nor givin' in marriage."
"Wha' for? is eatin' wicked, Pallas?"
"Not on dis yearth, where it is a necessary evil. But _dar_--dar's
better tings. We'll sing dar, Saturn," she continued, anxious to
rekindle the religious ardor which she was fearful of cooling by her
picture of the purely spiritual pleasures of the next world. "We'll set
under de tree ob life, by side de beautiful ribber, and sing all de
hymns and psalms;" and she struck up, in a voice of rich melody,
"O Canaan, my happy home,
Oh, how I long for thee!"
while her husband joined in the strain with equal fervor.
Alice loved to hear them singing at their work; not only because of
their musical voices, but the enthusiasm, the joy and expectation
swelling through them, awakened her own young soul to hope and prayer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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