A Woman Rice Planter

by Elizabeth W. Allston Pringle

The clouds made it much darker than it should have been, for the sun had only just gone down. I have never seen such vivid lightning nor heard such claps of thunder, and at each Romola darted out of the road as though the thick bushes could protect her. Not a human being was to be seen the whole way, and when I got to the avenue gate, which was shut, I had, of course, to get out to open it, and I felt sure Romola would fly home and leave me; but I did her an injustice. She waited, with every sign of impatience, long enough for me with great speed to get in, and then dashed on until we got to the darkest spot in the avenue, where the live oaks lap together overhead. A fearful flash of lightning came, followed instantly by a terrific peal of thunder, and she stopped short. I felt sure she had been struck, and she seemed to share the impression, but in a moment she went on and we were soon at home.

I was so excited that I was in a perfect gale of spirits, which quite upset my good Chloe, who had worked herself up to a wretched state of anxiety about me, miserable that I was out in that terrible storm alone; and she was hurt and disapproving of my attitude, especially as the first thing I did was to insist that Gerty and herself should take in my best rug, which had been hung on the piazza to air. Their terror had been so great that they had left it out in the rain—such a panic had seized them that they were very reluctant to venture out on the piazza. They had the house shut up without a breath of air, that being their idea of safety. Of course, I was drenched and had to change all my things, and after two hours I sent word to Willing that he might safely feed the mare, I having told him to rub her perfectly dry, but not to feed her till I sent him word. What was my dismay to find he had not rubbed her at all—said he was afraid to stay in the stable, so he had turned her loose in the stable yard and gone into the kitchen, leaving her exposed to the pouring rain! Of course she will be foundered, for she was very hot.

Sunday, May 8.

Drove Ruth to church and met some one just from Gregory on the way, who told me a most terrible thing. Mrs. R., one of the loveliest women in our community, was struck by lightning during the storm last evening. She had always had a great terror of lightning, though in every other respect she was a fearless woman, so that her family always gathered round her during a storm and tried as much as possible to shut out the sight and sound. On this occasion her husband and daughter were sitting one on each side of her on an old-fashioned mahogany sofa, she with her handkerchief thrown over her face. When the fatal flash came the husband and daughter were thrown forward to the floor and were stunned; as soon as they recovered consciousness they turned to reassure the mother as to their not being seriously hurt. She was still sitting straight up on the sofa with the handkerchief over her face; they lifted the handkerchief as they received no answer and found life extinct. It was a translation really for her, as she probably felt nothing; there was only one small spot at the back of the neck. She was a woman rarely gifted, with beauty of face and form, as well as of soul; she was one upon whom every one rested who came in contact with her; she gave of her strength to all who needed it, for her supply was unlimited, coming direct from the great source of all power. I wonder if terror of lightning was a premonition which had been with, her always from her childhood? Her death is a great loss to our county, and to her family a calamity indeed.

May 9.

Very busy arranging things so that I can leave for my annual visit to Washington. It is harder than ever, for Jim not being here to leave in charge of the horses I feel very anxious. However, I have done my best and will leave to-morrow. The incubator is in full swing and Chloe and Gerty have learned how to manage the heat between them. The chicks are due to hatch on the 14th, and I have left most accurate written directions for each day which Gerty is to read aloud to Chloe as the day comes, for toward the end the heat must be raised. The first family of sixty-seven are growing apace; only one has died and that was smothered by the others before I found out that I must put them under the hover every night or they will cluster about the thermometer and climb on top of each other until the ones underneath are smothered if help does not come. It is the funniest thing to see their devotion to the thermometer. They peck it off of the nail on which it hangs, so that as soon as I learned to know the proper heat for the brooder by touching the metal cylinder under the hover, I took the thermometer out entirely, and as soon as it was gone they went under the hover of their own accord. They seemed to feel that the mercury was a living presence, I suppose, because it moved up and down in the tube.

I am leaving Willing to run one cultivator, with Mollie and Gibbie to run the other with a fine ox I have just bought. I heard that Gibbie had made his plans to "go to town" to work, leaving his young wife and child, and I racked my brain for something that would interest him at home and divert his thoughts from that plan; for if once a young negro leaves his wife and children to go away to work he is very apt to stay away permanently, and I should be sorry for Gibbie to do that. One day I called him and said: "Gibbie, I wish to try an experiment and put you in charge of it, and I am going away for a month. You know, in this country no one ever thinks of ploughing a single ox; they can't do anything without a yoke of oxen; but in the up country it is not so. On my way to the mountains I see from the car windows people running their ploughs with a single ox. Now I want you to take entire charge of Paul—no one else is to use him—and I want you to put him in the cultivator and run it through the corn day by day until you finish that, and then through the cotton, and then start through the corn again; but be careful of Paul and do not let him get galled, and feed him well."

Gibbie was as proud as though he had been made Viceroy of India and his plan of deserting vanished.

May 26.

Washington. Spent the afternoon at the Agricultural Department, where I met with much courtesy as well as information. I went specially to inquire as to the practicability of the cultivation of the orris root on our rice field lands. The orris of commerce is the root of the iris, which grows luxuriantly in our low country. In the latter part of March and during the month of April every swampy low spot, as one drives along the road, is beautiful with the dark purple or blue and the light purple and the white iris, or flag. My desire was to find out if these species of iris had the perfumed root, for if they have we could cultivate it in the rice fields with great success.