“De thud night I had it fixed. I knowed she’d gone off mad, but I knowed a ’oman, arter one huggin’, is like a dog burryin’ a bone—he’ll leave it fur awhile, but he’s sho to cum back to it ag’in! I jes’ waited an’ let her cum back, fixin’ my plans. I tole Sally to set down in one corner of de po’ch in de dark an’ keep quiet—dat I had a s’prize fer her to sho’ how her virtuous husban’ wuz bein’ inticed by de Philistine. “Dat wuz enuff—she sot. “I waited till dark fore I cum an’ den I stomped aroun’, washed my face an’ han’s, an’ lit my pipe. An’ heah she cum _tipperty-tip_ an’ all she wanted to kno’ wuz, _if de moon had riz_! “Boss, I let her do de talkin’, fur she wuz ripe fur it, an’ ’bout de time she tole me dat she lubbed me frum de fus’ an’ dat I orter married her stead of Sally, I heerd a scufflin’ in de co’ner,—Sally riz up, dar wuz much excitement an’ scatterment of hair an’ when it wuz over dar wuz nobody on dat place but me an’ Sally, _an’ I owned her_.” SOME BEAUTIFUL WOMEN OF THE SOUTH [Illustration: MRS. PAUL LANSING Versailles, Kentucky _Buck, Washington_] [Illustration: MISSES THEODORA AND MARGUERITE SHONTS Twin daughters of Theodore P. Shonts, of Daphne, Alabama, Washington and Panama] [Illustration: MRS. WILLIAM BAILEY LAMAR Monticello, Florida] [Illustration: MISS OLIVE WIGGINS Daughter of F. Lafayette Wiggins, Nashville _Turner, Nashville_] [Illustration: MRS. SYDNEY JOHNSTON BOWIE Anniston, Alabama _Buck, Washington_] COLONIAL FOOTPRINTS By J. K. Collins “Ring down the curtain of to-day And give the past the right of way, Till fields of battle red with rust Shine through the ashes and the dust, Across the age and burn as plain As glowing Mars through window pane. How grandly glow like grenadiers, These heroes of a hundred years!” [Illustration: MARY WASHINGTON] Our forefathers were great fighters and excelled the world as makers of history, but unfortunately for us, they were not writers of it. When a duty was done or a great victory gained it seemed not to demand the attention from them that we of the present day think it deserved, but was set aside with perhaps a brief record. It had to make way for new duties demanded by the exigencies of the times. While they carried the weight of the nation on their young shoulders, they have left us only “shreds and patches” from which to deduce anything like specific exactness of the manners and customs of those early days of our great country. It is, therefore, difficult to elaborate the conditions of the country and particularly the distinctive qualities which made up the social life of those who evolved and produced, to us, the best government in all the world.