In the corn-field all day. We never gather and house corn as early as this, but the stealing is so much worse than usual that it is either now or never. I could only get the women out, so I made Goliah do the hauling. I rode Romola, and she was very disagreeable and restless.
September 7.
In the corn-field yesterday and to-day. A perfect day, and the air crisp and not too hot. Oh, the beauty of the sky and air and trees and the black-eyed Susans and goldenrod everywhere! Oh, the mercy and goodness of God in making all this beauty and showering it on us unsatisfactory, discontented, grumbling mortals!
As I sit under a tree and drink in all this beauty and wonder, I resolve never to think myself hardly used, never to long after the yellow gold which greases the wheels of the world and makes life so easy, while I have all this golden glory of beauty and sunshine, and the power to see it and enjoy it to the full.
The week's stay in the field has rewarded me. I have in the barn 550 bushels of corn and about two tons of sweet, dry hay—only the first cutting and not a drop of rain on it.
Last Wednesday Gibbie asked me to lend him my canoe. I hesitated, for it is a very nice white boat. He said:—
"Miss, ef you'll len' me I'll be keerful wid um en I'll gi'e you some bud fo' pay fo' um ebry day."
I at once consented to let him have it if he would give me a dozen birds as rent.
The next morning I went down to the plantation with the pleasant expectation of having a nice dinner; the rice birds are tiny, but delicious. When I was leaving I asked Gibbie where my birds were, he brought out three and said they had had a poor night's sport.
The next day he said there were none, as there was no dew and they could not get them when there was no dew. Friday night there was too much wind, he said.