The Tobacco Tiller: A Tale of the Kentucky Tobacco FieldsHackley, Sarah Bell
General
The Tobacco Tiller: A Tale of the Kentucky Tobacco Fields
Hackley, Sarah Bell
Kentucky -- Fiction; Tobacco farmers -- Fiction
A suspicion that his hand was not going to be the gratuitous addition to
his laboring force he had supposed crossed Mr. Doggett's mind, and
somewhat ruefully he turned Big Money's head again in the direction of
the dry goods houses, and climbed out before the store of Jacob
Himmelstein.
"I been a layin' off to drap in to see you, Mr. Himmelstein, yes, sir, I
have," Mr. Doggett mollified his Israelitish friend, whose first words
of greeting were gentle reproaches: "but I jest hain't possible had time
'tel today, and I come in to see ef you couldn't sorter holp me out.
Can't you gimme some barg'ins?"
"Can I gif _you_ bargains, mine frient?" Mr. Himmelstein's upraised
hands spoke worlds of reproach: "I t'ought your memory vas goot!"
"Thar's a kind o' fellers that won't buy nothin' onless might' night'
ever'body says they's gittin' a barg'in," pursued Mr. Doggett, "but I
hain't one o' them kind. I wish I wuz."
"Ah, mine frient, you have been to buying elsewhere dan under de sign of
J. Himmelstein!" mourned that gentleman.
Mr. Doggett told of his purchase of the morning, and of his garment
shortage, and received voluble assurance of Mr. Himmelstein's ability
and willingness to fit him out "sheap."
After a half-hour's haggling, the question of everyday clothing was
settled in two pairs of azure cottonade "overhalls," three sky-colored
hickory shirts, two outfits of underwear, a buckeye hat, and socks
(three pairs for a nickel).
"Forty cents seems a reasonable price fer these here jeans breeches,"
Mr. Doggett mused, when he came to buy Dunaway's "Sunday" raiment: "but
hain't they a leetle short in the leg? Hit seems to me they won't more'n
hit him at the knees."
"Dey'll be all right for fine wedder," Himmelstein assured him, hastily
wrapping up the doubtful pantaloons.
"A hat and shoes," Mr. Doggett reflected: "I hain't able to lay out but
a doller er two more on him. I don't keer fer style fer him,--got
anytheng a leetle onfashionable in the way o' head and foot coverin's?"
Mr. Himmelstein darted to a box in the extreme back part of his
establishment, and after some moment's digging in its depths, brought
out a flat derby of the style of twenty years past, and a pair of
"needle pointers," number twelves.
"If your man can vear dese," he inveigled Mr. Doggett, "you can haf de
great bargain for t'ree quarter of von dollar unt I t'row in de hat for
von nickel unt two dimes more."
Mr. Doggett concluded to take the risk of their fitting, and had them
wrapped up.
"Before we leave town," observed Dunaway, as Mr. Doggett took the reins,
"I'd like to tell you I'm about out of chewing tobacco. 'Lady Isabel' is
the brand I use."
"What's the matter with long green?" Mr. Doggett's tone was persuasive.
"I've got a world o' that hanging up at home."
Dunaway coughed apologetically. "My stomach is delicate," he declared
airily, "and anything but the Lady Isabel seems to irritate it."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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