FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79  
80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   >>   >|  
be frozen, and often there would be snow. My feet would crack and bleed freely, but when I reached home Mother would have a tub full of hot water ready to plunge me into and thaw me out. Although this caused my feet and legs to swell, it usually got me into shape for school the next day. I remember once, when I had helped "lay by" the crops at home and was ready to enter the little one-month school, it was decided that I could not go, because I had no hat. My mother told me that if I could catch a 'coon and cure the skin, she would make me a cap out of that material. That night I went far into the forest with my hounds, and finally located a 'coon. The 'coon was a mighty fighter, and when he had driven off all my dogs I saw that the only chance for me to get a cap was to whip the 'coon myself, so together with the dogs I went at him, and finally we conquered him. The next week I went to school wearing my new 'coon-skin cap. Exertions of this kind, from time to time, strengthened my will and my body, and prepared me for more trying tests which were to come later. As I grew older it became more and more difficult for me to go to school. When cotton first began to open,--early in the fall,--it brought a higher price than at any other time of the year. At this time the landlord wanted us all to stop school and pick cotton. But Mother wanted me to remain in school, so, when the landlord came to the quarters early in the morning to stir up the cotton pickers, she used to outgeneral him by hiding me behind the skillets, ovens, and pots, throwing some old rags over me until he was gone. Then she would slip me off to school through the back way. I can see her now with her hands upon my shoulder, shoving me along through the woods and underbrush, in a roundabout way, keeping me all the time out of sight of the great plantation until we reached the point, a mile away from home, where we came to the public road. There my mother would bid me good-bye, whereupon she would return to the plantation and try to make up to the landlord for the work of us both in the field as cotton pickers. THE BRAVE SON ALSTON W. BURLEIGH A little boy, lost in his childish play, Mid the deep'ning shades of the fading day, Fancied the warrior he would be; He scattered his foes with his wooden sword And put to flight a mighty horde-- Ere he crept to his daddy's knee. A soldier crawled o'er the death-str
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79  
80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

school

 

cotton

 

landlord

 
mother
 
wanted
 

pickers

 
mighty
 

plantation

 

finally

 

reached


Mother
 

shoulder

 

underbrush

 

roundabout

 

shoving

 
skillets
 

throwing

 

hiding

 

keeping

 
soldier

crawled

 
outgeneral
 

flight

 

fading

 

morning

 

shades

 

return

 
childish
 

BURLEIGH

 

ALSTON


Fancied

 

public

 

scattered

 

warrior

 

wooden

 

decided

 

helped

 

forest

 

hounds

 

located


material

 

remember

 

freely

 

frozen

 

caused

 

plunge

 
Although
 

fighter

 

driven

 

difficult