Project Gutenberg Complete Works of Winston ChurchillChurchill, Winston
General
Project Gutenberg Complete Works of Winston Churchill
Churchill, Winston
American fiction
Travelling with incredible slowness, in due time we came to a county
called Orangeburg, where all were Dutchmen like Hans, and very few spoke
English. And they all thought like Hans, and loved peace, and hated the
Congress. On Sundays, as we lay over at the taverns, these would be
filled with a rollicking crowd of fiddlers and dancers, quaintly dressed,
the women bringing their children and babies. At such times Hans would
be drunk, and I would have to feed the tired horses and mount watch over
the cargo. I had many adventures, but none worth the telling here. And
at length we came to Hans's farm, in a prettily rolling country on the
Broad River. Hans's wife spoke no English at all, nor did the brood of
children running about the house. I had small fancy for staying in such
a place, and so Hans paid me two crowns for my three weeks' service; I
think, with real regret, for labor was scarce in those parts, and though
I was young, I knew how to work. And I could at least have guided his
plough in the furrow and cared for his cattle.
It was the first money I had earned in my life, and a prouder day than
many I have had since.
For the convenience of travellers passing that way, Hans kept a
tavern,--if it could have been dignified by such a name. It was in truth
merely a log house with shakedowns, and stood across the rude road from
his log farmhouse. And he gave me leave to sleep there and to work for
my board until I cared to leave. It so chanced that on the second day
after my arrival a pack-train came along, guided by a nettlesome old man
and a strong, black-haired lass of sixteen or thereabouts. The old man,
whose name was Ripley, wore a nut-brown hunting shirt trimmed with red
cotton; and he had no sooner slipped the packs from his horses than he
began to rail at Hans, who stood looking on.
"You damned Dutchmen be all Tories, and worse," he cried; "you stay here
and till your farms while our boys are off in the hill towns fighting
Cherokees. I wish the devils had every one of your fat sculps. Polly
Ann, water the nags."
Hans replied to this sally with great vigor, lapsing into Dutch. Polly
Ann led the scrawny ponies to the trough, but her eyes snapped with
merriment as she listened. She was a wonderfully comely lass, despite
her loose cotton gown and poke-bonnet and the shoepacks on her feet. She
had blue eyes, the whitest, strongest of teeth, and the rosiest of faces.
"Gran'pa hates a Dutchman wuss'n pizen," she said to me. "So do I.
We've all been burned out and sculped up river--and they never give us so
much as a man or a measure of corn."
I helped her feed the animals, and tether them, and loose their bells for
the night, and carry the packs under cover.
"All the boys is gone to join Rutherford and lam the Indians," she
continued, "so Gran'pa and I had to go to the settlements. There wahn't
any one else. What's your name?" she demanded suddenly.
I told her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account