Went to Cherokee, taking Chloe, for I was to have the peanut crop harvested and I felt I needed all the eyes possible. Goliah worked finely and it was a successful day. The peanuts turned out so well I had to send for two extra hands to get them all in.
I would feel very proud of the yield if there were not so many "pops" in them. Hypocrites they are. They look perfectly solid and plausible and when you break the shell there is nothing in it. I should have used more lime in the land.
Walked down early into the cotton-field, and found it full of tracks of bare feet, so many different ones that I think every one on the place had been out stealing cotton. Jim was away to-day, so they had no fear of being caught. There is no one else who would tell me if he saw them there. I have felt sure this was going on because I have watched the cotton and know that from day to day it disappears. There is no hope of making anything.
At a store near-by they buy seed cotton in any quantity, paying 3½ cents a pound. Little Jim-Willin', who can pick twenty pounds in a day, can go and sell that amount for 70 cents, and no questions asked. If they pick every morning during the two hours they know Jim is milking and attending to the horses, they can get all the cotton as fast as it comes out. I have wondered because it opened so slowly that I can only pick once a week.
To-night little MacDuff seems very sick. At 9 I get Chloe to go out with me and I put him in the little wire enclosure so that the other dogs cannot worry him; gave him milk, of which he drank a very little, and put a big pan of water for him.
September 16.
This morning when I went to see MacDuff I took him some griddle cakes, which he prefers to anything else. He tried to eat and had a dreadful convulsion. I sent Jim for hot water and bathed him. Then he seemed much better, walked to the fresh water I had brought, and drank heartily. Then he went and tried to eat, but the same thing came on, only not so severe. He has a sore place on the side of his mouth and also on his tail. The flies worry him so I have rigged up a little mosquito net for him.
Dear little Duff much the same. He would not take the milk I brought him nor eat, but he dipped his nose deep into the basin of water very often. I think his jaws are locked, and so he cannot lap with his tongue as dogs generally do, but he can draw in water through the sides, when he buries his whole mouth in the water. It is distressing, to see him suffer. I do not think he is in pain, but he must die if he can neither eat nor drink. I had to try to force his mouth open and pour some milk down, but I saw it hurt him and it did no good. His gums seem very sore and inflamed.
To-night I finished reading "Queed," a most delightful novel, that leaves a good taste in your mouth, which is more than can be said of many.
September 17.