Patty came in.
They said their father's "stepwife" had advertised the horse and buggy and cow and calf for sale, all of which things had belonged to their own mother and the "stepwife" had no right to sell them. I spent the whole morning talking to them and writing for them to the Probate Judge and others.
Totem was a faithful servant and their mother an excellent woman, and I shall do all in my power to have their property protected. At the same time I tried to make them understand that the "stepwife," having been legally married to their father, however short a time before his death, had a right to a proportion of his property.
As soon as they were gone I went to the plantation, where terrible havoc has been made in the corn by three hogs belonging to negroes who live miles away in the woods. It is a most difficult thing to get any redress for this. Bonaparte asked me to walk through the corn-field to estimate the damage, and really I think one-third of the corn has gone.
I cannot believe it is altogether the work of animals. I think they have been assisted by humans, for while great quantities of corn stalks are bent down and you can see where the corn has been eaten on the ground, in many, many cases the stalks are standing straight up and the ears are gone. However, I say nothing about that, as it would be useless.
One of the hogs I hired a man with a dog to catch two weeks ago. It weighs over 200 pounds and the man charged $2 for catching it. I have fed it in the pen for seventeen days. Now the owner, a very well-to-do darky who has a pension from the Government and is above work, says he cannot possibly pay $7, which is the amount I fixed upon, though the damage is much greater than that, indeed, four times that.
There are still two smaller hogs of about 100 pounds each in the field.
I have a strong wire fence around and I cannot help thinking the hogs have been let in at the gate. Of course a man would have them shot, but I cannot do that.
The milk is falling off, and to keep up my butter engagements I will have to stop sending the pint of milk daily to Eva which I have been sending for six weeks. She is Gibbie's mother, and when the doctor said she should have fresh milk I gladly gave it, but she is up and about now, and if Gibbie will not take the trouble to take the milk from the cows because he is in such haste to go out hunting, his mother will have to suffer along with me.