Plantation Sketches | Page 4

a grand butler; he would carry the trap and, after it had
been set and baited, I would make him guide me to the trees where the
sweetest persimmons grew; there I would while away the morning and
on the next we would find one or more birds fluttering in the trap,
which, to Minor's silent disgust, I would set free.

The squirrels, too, were a pleasure to me in my horseback rides toward
Vine Ridge, especially. Your grandfather and I would pause to watch
them playing hide and seek just like children, scampering round and
round, their pretty gray tails waving, until some noise would send them
out of sight, and the silent forest would seem as if no living thing were
near. It was upon one of these rides that your grandfather told me how,
when he was about twelve years old, and spending his Christmas
holidays at Runiroi with his grandfather, he once said that he could
shoot one hundred squirrels between sunrise and sunset. His uncle,
George Pollock Devereux, happened to hear him and rebuked him
sharply for so idle a boast, and when your dear grandfather manfully
stood his ground, saying that it was not an idle boast, his uncle called
him a vain braggart, which so offended your grandfather that he told his
uncle that he would prove the truth of his assertion. And so, upon the
following morning, he rose early and was at Vine Ridge gun in hand,
ready to make his first shot, as soon as the sun should appear. The
squirrels were very numerous at first, and he made great havoc among
them. Many a mile he tramped that day, scanning with eager eyes the
trees above him, in search of the little gray noses, hidden behind the
branches, and thus it happened that he got many a fall and tumble
among the cypress knees; but what did that matter to his young limbs?
he had only to pick himself up again and tramp on. As the day
advanced, fewer little bright eyes peeped from the tree-tops and his
number was not made up; he was getting tired too, and very hungry, for
he had eaten nothing since his early breakfast. He stumbled wearily on,
however, determined not to fail, for he dreaded his uncle's triumphant
sarcasm should he do so. A few more shots brought his number to
ninety-nine, but where was the one-hundredth to be found? The sun
was sinking to the horizon; he had come out from the swamp and was
tramping homeward; the gun, so light in the morning, now weighed
like lead upon his shoulder. As he looked into every tree for that
hundredth squirrel which could not be found, the sun's disk was resting
upon the horizon when he turned into the willow lane leading to the
house. Just at the entrance there stood a great chestnut oak. This was
his last chance. He paused to take one hopeless look, when, to his
unspeakable joy, he beheld a fox squirrel seated up among the branches.
Now he knew that the fox squirrel was the slyest, as well as the shyest

of all his kind; no creature so expert as he in slipping out of range;
there would be no chance for a second shot, for now only a rim of the
sun was left. With a wildly beating heart he raised his gun, took time to
aim well,--fired,--and down came his hundredth squirrel. His wager
was won; fatigue and hunger all gone, he hastened gayly home and
with pride emptied his bag before his uncle and his delighted old
grandfather, who loved him above everything, and who finally made
him his heir, so that your grandfather was quite independent of his own
father.
When I first became acquainted with the plantation, the sale crop was
taken down to Plymouth in a great old scow, but this was afterward
superseded by the introduction of freight steamers, which took the
produce direct to Norfolk. These steamers proved to be a great comfort
and convenience to us. By them we might receive anything that we
desired from Norfolk, of which the things most enjoyed were packages
of books,--Vickry and Griffiths, booksellers, having standing orders to
send at their discretion what they thought desirable, besides the special
orders for what we wished to see.
The advent of a steamer at the landing would cause much pleasurable
excitement. If anything of special interest was expected, the first puff of
steam from down the river would be eagerly examined through the
spy-glass. Then would follow several days of busy life down at the
different barns from which the corn was to be shipped. Before the
introduction of the corn-sheller, the corn was beaten from the cob by
men wielding great sticks, or