What Might Have Been Expected | Page 4

woman that day. He also gathered and piled up inside of her
cabin a good supply of wood. Fortunately, there was a spring very near
her door, so that she could get water without much trouble.
Harry and Kate determined that they would commence business in
earnest the next morning, and, as this was not the season for game, they

determined to go to work to gather sumac-leaves.
Most of us are familiar with the sumac-bush, which grows nearly all
over the United States. Of course we do not mean the poisonous
swamp-sumac, but that which grows along the fences and on the edges
of the woods. Of late years the leaves of this bush have been greatly in
demand for tanning purposes, and, in some States, especially in
Virginia, sumac gathering has become a very important branch of
industry, particularly with the negroes; many of whom, during the
sumac season, prefer gathering these leaves to doing any other kind of
work. The sumac-bush is quite low, and the leaves are easily stripped
off. They are then carefully dried, and packed in bags, and carried to
the nearest place of sale, generally a country store.
The next morning, Harry and Kate made preparations for a regular
expedition. They were to take their dinner, and stay all day. Kate was
enraptured--even more so, perhaps, than Harry. Each of them had a
large bag, and Harry carried his gun, for who could tell what they might
meet with? A mink, perhaps, or a fox, or even a beaver! They had a
long walk, but it was through the woods, and there was always
something to see in the woods. In a couple of hours, for they stopped
very often, they reached a little valley, through which ran Crooked
Creek. And on the banks of Crooked Creek were plenty of
sumac-bushes. This place was at some distance from any settlement,
and apparently had not been visited by sumac gatherers.
"Hurra!" cried Kate, "here is enough to fill a thousand bags!"
Harry leaned his gun against a tree, and hung up his shot and powder
flasks, and they both went to work gathering sumac. There was plenty
of it, but Kate soon found that what they saw would not fill a thousand
bags. There were a good many bushes, but they were small; and, when
all the leaves were stripped off one, and squeezed into a bag, they did
not make a very great show. However, they did very well, and, for an
hour or so, they worked on merrily. Then they had dinner. Harry built a
fire. He easily found dry branches, and he had brought matches and
paper with him. At a little distance under a great pine-tree, Kate
selected a level place, and cleared away the dead leaves and the twigs,

leaving a smooth table of dry and fragrant pine-needles. On this she
spread the cloth, which was a napkin. Then she took from the little
basket she had brought with her a cake of corn-meal, several thick and
well-buttered slices of wheat bread, some hard-boiled eggs, a little
paper of pepper and salt, a piece of cheese, and some fried chicken.
When this was spread out (and it would not all go on the cloth), Harry
came, and looked at the repast.
"What is there to cook?" said he.
Kate glanced over her table, with a perplexed look upon her
countenance, and said, "I don't believe there is anything to cook."
"But we ought to cook something," said Harry. "Here is a splendid fire.
What's the good of camping out if you don't cook things?"
"But everything is cooked," said Kate.
"So it seems," said Harry, in a somewhat discouraged tone. Had he
built that beautiful fire for nothing? "We ought to have brought along
something raw," said he. "It is ridiculous eating a cold dinner, with a
splendid fire like that."
"We might catch some fish," said Kate; "we should have to cook them."
"Yes," said Harry, "but I brought no lines."
So, as there was nothing else to be done, they ate their dinner cold, and
when they had finished, Kate cleared off the table by giving the napkin
a flirt, and they were ready for work again. But first they went to look
for a spring, where they could get a drink. In about half an hour they
found a spring, and some wild plums, and some blackberries, and a
grape-vine (which would surely be full of grapes in the fall, and was
therefore a vine to be remembered), and a stone, which Kate was quite
certain was an Indian arrow-head, and some tracks in the white sand,
which must have been made by some animal or other, although neither
of them was able to determine exactly what animal.

When