LETTER I.
Pineville, May 28th, 1842.
Dear Sir,
Ever sense you was down to Pineville, it’s been on my mind to rite you a letter, but the boys lowed I’d better not, ’cause you mought take me off ’bout my spellin’ and dictionary. But something happened to me t’other night, so monstrous provokin’, that I can’t help tellin’ you about it. It all came of snuffing ashes over a soft wood fire, and I reckon I’ve wished there was no sich plaguy stuff, as soft wood, more’n five hundred times sense it happened. You know the Stallinses lives on the plantation in the summer, and goes to town in the winter. Well, Miss Mary Stallins, who you know is the darlinest gal in the county, came home t’other day to see her folks. You know she’s been to the Female College, down to Macon, for most a year now. Before she went, she used to be as plain as an old shoe, and used to go fishin’ and huckelberryin’ with us, with nothin’ but a calico sun-bonnet on, and was the wildest thing you ever saw. Well, I always used to have a sort of sneakin’ notion of Mary Stallins, and so when she come, I brushed up, and was ’termined to have a rite serious talk with her ’bout old matters; not knowin’ but she might be captivated by some of them Macon fellers.
So, sure enough, off I started, unbeknowin’ to anybody, and rode rite over to the plantation, (you know ours is rite jinin’ the widder Stallinses.) Well, when I got thar, I felt a little sort of sheepish; but I soon got over that, when Miss Carline said, (but she didn’t mean me to hear her)—
“There Pinny, (that’s Miss Mary’s nick-name, you know,) there’s your bo come.”
Miss Mary looked mighty sort o’ redish when I shuck her hand and told her howdy; and she made a sort of a stoop over and a dodge back, like the little gals does to the school-marm, and said:
“Good evenin’, Mr. Jones,” (she used to always call me jest Joe.)
“Take a chair, Joseph,” said Miss Carline; and we sot down in the parlor, and I begun talkin’ to Miss Mary ’bout Macon, and the long ride she had, and the bad roads, and the monstrous hot weather, and the like.