e of the plantation.
She stood five feet ten in her bare feet, and although she tipped the
scales at a hundred and sixty, she was as slim and round as a reed, and
it was well known that the grip of her firm fingers applied to the
closed fist of any of the young fellows on the place would make him
howl. She was an emotional creature, with a caustic tongue on occasion,
and when it pleased her mood to look over her shoulder at one of her
numerous admirers and to wither him with a look or a word, she did not
hesitate to do it. For instance, when Apollo first asked her to marry
him--it had been his habit to propose to her every day or so for a year
or two past--she glanced at him askance from head to foot, and then she
said: "Why, yas. Dat is, I s'pose, of co'se, you's de sample. I'd order
a full-size by you in a minute." This was cruel, and seeing the pathetic
look come into his face, she instantly repented of it, and walked home
from church with him, dismissing a handsome black fellow, and saying
only kind things to Apollo all the way. And while he walked beside her,
he told her that, although she couldn't realize it, he was as tall as
she, for his feet were not on the ground at all; which was in a manner
true, for when Lily was gracious to him, he felt himself borne along on
wings that the common people could not see.

Of course no one took Apollo seriously as Lily's suitor, much less the
chocolate maid herself. But there were other lovers. Indeed, there were
all the others, for that matter, but in point of eligibility the number
to be seriously regarded was reduced to about two. These were Pete
Peters, a handsome griff, with just enough Indian in his blood to give
him an air of distinction, and a French-talking mulatto who had come up
from New Orleans to repair the machinery in the sugar-house, and who was
buying land in the vicinity, and drove his own sulky. Pete was less
prosperous than he, but although he worked his land on shares, he owned
two mules and a saddle-horse, and would be allowed to enter on a
purchase of land whenever he should choose to do so. Although Pete and
the New Orleans fellow, whose name was also Peter, but who was called
Pierre, met constantly in a friendly enough way, they did not love each
other. They both loved Lily too much for that. But they laughed
good-naturedly together at Apollo and his "case," which they inquired
after politely, as if it were a member of his family.

"Well, 'Pollo, how