Diddie, Dumps Tot | Page 2

44
IV. Old Billy 50
V. Diddie's Book 67
VI. Uncle Snake-bit Bob's Sunday-school 82
VII. Poor Ann 92
VIII. Uncle Bob's Proposition 106
IX. Aunt Edy's Story 111

X. Plantation Games 119
XI. Diddie In Trouble 128
XII. How The Woodpecker's Head And The Robin's Breast Came To
Be Red 140
XIII. A Plantation Meeting, And Uncle Daniel's Sermon 152
XIV. Diddie And Dumps Go Visiting 166
XV. The Fourth Of July 182
XVI. "'Struck'n uv de Chil'en" 199
XVII. What Became Of Them 212

ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE Evening Devotions Frontispiece.
Sanitary Measures 19
Playing "Injuns" 39
"Ole Billy" 59
"The Tar Baby" 79
"My Min', Hit's Made Up" 103
"Yer'll all Be Havin' De Croup Next" 135
"Well, My Invice Is Dis" 147
"Monahs 'pun Top Er Monahs" 163
"Bringin' 'im the Picnic" 171

"Swinging On Grape-vines and Riding On Saplings" 195
"'Struck'n uv de Chil'en" 201

DIDDIE, DUMPS, AND TOT.
CHAPTER I.
DIDDIE, DUMPS, AND TOT.
They were three little sisters, daughters of a Southern planter, and they
lived in a big white house on a cotton plantation in Mississippi. The
house stood in a grove of cedars and live-oaks, and on one side was a
flower-garden, with two summer-houses covered with climbing roses
and honeysuckles, where the little girls would often have tea-parties in
the pleasant spring and summer days. Back of the house was a long
avenue of water-oaks leading to the quarters where the negroes lived.
Major Waldron, the father of the children, owned a large number of
slaves, and they loved him and his children very dearly. And the little
girls loved them, particularly "Mammy," who had nursed their mother,
and now had entire charge of the children; and Aunt Milly, a lame
yellow woman, who helped Mammy in the nursery; and Aunt Edy, the
head laundress, who was never too busy to amuse them. Then there was
Aunt Nancy, the "tender," who attended to the children for the
field-hands, and old Uncle Snake-bit Bob, who could scarcely walk at
all, because he had been bitten by a snake when he was a boy: so now
he had a little shop, where he made baskets of white-oak splits for the
hands to pick cotton in; and he always had a story ready for the
children, and would let them help him weave baskets whenever
Mammy would take them to the shop.
Besides these, there were Riar, Chris, and Dilsey, three little negroes,
who belonged to the little girls and played with them, and were in
training to be their maids by-and-by.

Diddie, the oldest of the children, was nine years of age, and had a
governess, Miss Carrie, who had taught her to read quite well, and even
to write a letter. She was a quiet, thoughtful little girl, well advanced
for her age, and ladylike in her manners.
Dumps, the second sister, was five, full of fun and mischief, and gave
Mammy a great deal of trouble on account of her wild tomboyish ways.
Tot, the baby, was a tiny, little blue-eyed child of three, with long light
curls, who was always amiable and sweet-tempered, and was petted by
everybody who knew her.
Now, you must not think that the little girls had been carried to the font
and baptized with such ridiculous names as Diddie, Dumps, and Tot:
these were only pet names that Mammy had given them; but they had
been called by them so long that many persons forgot that Diddie's
name was Madeleine, that Dumps had been baptized Elinor, and that
Tot bore her mother's name of Eugenia, for they were known as Diddie,
Dumps, and Tot to all of their friends.
The little girls were very happy in their plantation home. 'Tis true they
lived 'way out in the country, and had no museums nor toy-shops to
visit, no fine parks to walk or ride in, nor did they have a very great
variety of toys. They had some dolls and books, and a baby-house
furnished with little beds and chairs and tables; and they had a big
Newfoundland dog, Old Bruno; and Dumps and Tot both had a little
kitten apiece; and there was "Old Billy," who once upon a time had
been a frisky little lamb, Diddie's special pet; but now he was a vicious
old sheep, who amused the children very much by running after them
whenever he could catch them out-of-doors. Sometimes, though, he
would butt them over and hurt them, and Major Waldron had several
times had him turned into the pasture; but Diddie would always cry and
beg for him to be brought back, and so Old Billy was nearly always in
the yard.
Then there was Corbin, the little white pony that belonged to all of the
children together, and was saddled