A Woman Rice Planter

by Elizabeth W. Allston Pringle

I had not laid eyes on him for years, but he is the son of a faithful servant and was born in our servants' hall just before the end of the war. He has prospered, married well, and has a large family, who all help in the cultivation of his farm of twenty acres. Now that he has got into trouble he comes at once to me.

His great snare is the dreadful firewater. He told me he had got into "a tangle." Coming back from Gregory one day when he was "not quite himself" he had been accused of cursing and making a disturbance. He had been notified that he would be indicted, and when he went to remonstrate the man said if he paid $25 he would drop the case; but he had put off and put off, and now hears the case is to be tried to-morrow.

I made him tell me everything and felt sure the only thing for him to do is to pay the money as quickly as he can, for if the trial comes off it will go hard with him. He is known as very obstreperous and noisy when under the influence of liquor, though peaceable and civil otherwise; so I told him to get the money as quickly as he could and try to pay it before the trial came up. I was greatly worried about it and had Jim put Alcyone in the small buckboard and drive me down to Mr. B.'s. I took a very pretty apple geranium as an offering to his wife.

I told them I had come to see what I could do to help Zadok, that I was much distressed to hear he had misbehaved, that his father had been our trusted and faithful servant during the war when there was no man at home, and I begged them if he promised to pay the $25 to drop the case. Mr. B. said he thought it had now gone beyond his power to drop it, but he would try what could be done. On the way home I met Zadok in his buggy, which is a very nice one, driving his horse, which is a very good one. I told him I had done all I could and begged him to make a humble apology. He said he would and seemed much impressed.

Little Alcyone is a swift little filly and went splendidly, but she is not large enough to take two people in a buckboard that drive of sixteen miles at the pace she likes to go. It is an unwise thing to let her do it. She should have a light road cart only, for she will not walk at all. I really felt when I got home as though I had been actively employed from the time of Noah and the flood. Zadok promised me to stop drinking. God help him to keep his promise!

Casa Bianca.

Cherokee, November 27.

Before I started out this morning I called for Bonaparte and showed him a large portfolio of engravings and prints and told him to make a light wooden frame into which I could slip it to send by express. I specially told him to leave one end open so that I could put the portfolio in myself. When I got back from Casa Bianca this evening I found the very neat little light frame and was delighted, until I found the portfolio was nailed up in it so securely that I would have had to break the frame to get it out. It was too provoking, for I had not meant by any means to send all its contents.