That settled the whole matter, though Diddie was not entirely satisfied; but, as the wagon drove up to the creek bank just then, she was too much interested in the barbecue to care very much for “Marse Fofer July.”
The children all had their fishing-lines and hooks, and as soon as they were on the ground started to find a good place to fish. Dilsey got some bait from the negro boys, and baited the hooks; and it was a comical sight to see all of the children, white and black, perched upon the roots of trees or seated flat on the ground, watching intently their hooks, which they kept bobbing up and down so fast that the fish must have been very quick indeed to catch them.
They soon wearied of such dull sport, and began to set their wits to work to know what to do next.
“Le’s go ’possum-huntin’,” suggested Dilsey.
“There ain’t any ’possums in the daytime,” said Diddie.
“Yes dey is, Miss Diddie, lots uv ’em; folks jes goes at night fur ter save time. I knows how ter hunt fur ’possums; I kin tree ’em jes same ez er dog.”
And the children, delighted at the novelty of the thing, all started off “’possum-hunting,” for Mammy was helping unpack the dinner-baskets, and was not watching them just then. They wandered off some distance, climbing over logs and falling into mud-puddles, for they all had their heads thrown back and their faces turned up to the trees, looking for the ’possums, and thereby missed seeing impediments in the way.
At length Dilsey called out, “Hyear he is! Hyear de ’possum!” and they all came to a dead halt under a large oak-tree, which Dilsey and Chris, and even Diddie and Dumps, I regret to say, prepared to climb. But the climbing consisted mostly in active and fruitless endeavors to make a start, for Dilsey was the only one of the party who got as much as three feet from the ground; but she actually did climb up until she reached the first limb, and then crawled along it until she got near enough to shake off the ’possum, which proved to be a big chunk of wood that had lodged up there from a falling branch, probably; and when Dilsey shook the limb it fell down right upon Riar’s upturned face, and made her nose bleed.
“Wat you doin’, you nigger you?” demanded Riar, angrily, as she wiped the blood from her face. “I dar’ yer ter come down out’n dat tree, an’ I’ll beat de life out’n yer; I’ll larn yer who ter be shakin’ chunks on.”
In vain did Dilsey apologize, and say she thought it was a ’possum; Riar would listen to no excuse; and as soon as Dilsey reached the ground they had a rough-and-tumble fight, in which both parties got considerably worsted in the way of losing valuable hair, and of having their eyes filled with dirt and their clean dresses all muddied; but Tot was so much afraid Riar, her little nurse and maid, would get hurt that she screamed and cried, and refused to be comforted until the combatants suspended active hostilities, though they kept up quarrelling for some time, even after they had recommenced their search for ’possums.