"'E po' um right out down on de group' long side a Root een a puddle, en 'e neber so much as tech Root fut wid a wet clot'. 'E rub um wid a dry rag."
I cast my mind back and remembered how very dry Ruth's leg was, and how pleased I was that Gibbie should have rubbed her so well; but still I could scarcely believe that he had poured all that hot water on the ground. While I was considering, Chloe went on:—
"'Tain't me one see um. Patty en Dab en me all bin a eat we break-us en we set down right dey, en luk at Gibbie when 'e pou' out de watah 'pun de groun'."
What a farce to try to have anything done at all! I did not say a word to Gibbie about this. He would simply swear it was not so and there would be a state of warfare in the yard.
I sent for him that afternoon and told him to fill a big pot in the yard with water, get some mullein leaves and put in it, make a fire under the pot the first thing in the morning, and after cleaning his horses to bring Ruth out and let me know, as I wished to bathe her myself.
Cherokee, December 29.
Jim is not coming back; his month with me is up, and he has work in Gregory. Now the question is either to give up all the progress which has been made in Marietta's training or to drive her myself.
I have always been afraid of a skeleton road cart, and I confess I dread driving in one. I asked Jim before he went one day if he could not try her in the old buckboard, which is very light. He said by no means, that she wheeled square round at any new thing she saw, and would break the shafts at once.
To-day I had Romola put in the road cart for me to try it, and drove eight miles. The seat is just an unusually hard board, and I knew that the least thing would make me pitch out. When I got back I called Bonaparte and had him take off the board and put some strong wide pieces of leather across and then tack a sheepskin on top, and I will try it to-morrow.
Then I told him I wanted a small seat secured to the axle at the back so that Gibbie could sit there. Bonaparte indicated that ordinarily he found my plans intelligent, but that in this instance he failed to see any sign of common sense. It was all in civil, even courtly, language, but the meaning was plain. I was not daunted. I said:—