"Cracker Jim" [pp. 51-70]

1887.3 Cracker Jim.' 57
side. She was the living impersonation of Cherokee: "Granny, Jim hev sent ye some
that "neat-handed Phyllis," whose praises short-sweetnin' kase ye air poarly-it air
have been sung by poets from Virgil to better'n long-sweetnin'."
Milton, and whose occasional existence is Molasses was the "long sweetnin'" coma pleasing confirmation of our ideal con- monly in use, and was mixed with coffee,
ceptions. Her dress was of home-spun, or tea made from various herbs found in the
an~d of the pattern much in vogue among woods. This "long sweetnin"' was detesther people-blue and white check-but it able to Cherokee, who in her visits from
fitted her form, a circumstance quite unu- home had tasted coffee and tea sweetened
sual enough to attract attention. She wore, with white sugar. Jim Snyder often recalled
too, a white linen collar, a decided heresy, to his imagination the image of Cherokee,
since a home-spun neckerchief, or at best, when as a "brat" of four years she would
one of white muslin, constituted the neck watch for his coming from the cross~oads
attire of all the women in the settlement. store, where he, a lad of thirteen, had ex Her hands showed marks of toil, for pended his hard-earned picayunes for a
Cherokee was an orphan, living with an aged pound of coarse brown sugar, which he
grandmother, and household cares as well would feed to her from his hands at designas the spinning and weaving necessary for edly long intervals that he might hear her
their little home, fell upon her. Old Mrs. baby entreaties for "short sweetnin'."
Dobine had long ceased to take an active "She war er purty brat then, en she air
part in household work, the preparation purtier naow," said he, as he reflected upon
and dispensing of the morning and evening this experience of by-gone days. And he
meal to the few ducks and chickens that thought so more than ever as she stood
gathered around her back door, being her waiting the sentence which Mrs. Harjoeonly occupation. Pete Dobine, her grand- the autocrat of the neighborhood on all subson, and cousin to Cherokee, tilled the jects pertaining to needle-work or housegarden, ploughed the little corn patch, and wifery-would pass on her mittens.
went to mill on the one mule, which with "Wall, Che~rrykee, them air beauties, and
the humble homestead comprised the family the`restercrats`ull like em. What er purty
property. Pete was a faithful laborer, but scollup ye hev gin ter`em jest by widenin
youth often tests the sad results entailed by en narrerin', en I'll say fur ye ez ye air the
an absence of prudence, even when there onliest gal in the settlement ez ken dew it.
is an expenditure of time and energy, and What er power 0' stitches ye did put on, I'll
hence old Mrs. Dobine did not always make declar-all at onst, tew. The`restercrats
both ends meet. On the contrary, they`ull buy`em, Cherrykee, for they won't tech
were always far apart, with little reasonable nothin' with ther hands, bethout w'arin 0
probability of union, especially if the "var- gloves, ef it air jest ter set butter on the tamounts," had been bad on the pullets, and ble; Tom Welsh, ye hev tolt me that many
"middlin' bacon," was held at a high er time. Cherrykee, ye must er done this
price. But there was one who never failed fine ribbin' with er bone, kase it haint in
to offer the addition which spliced the re- natur' ter dew it with er needle-leastways,
fractory ends, and that one was Jim Snyder. that air my jedgment."
When his wagon returned from its commer- The knitting known as crochet is well
cial tour, packages of coffee and sugar were understood by the Cracker women, and is
sure to find their way to Granny Dobine's done with a bone prepared for the purpose
cabin, Pete being the bearer, who always by a process of boiling and scraping.
delivered them with a conscious glance at "These hyar torsuls," continued Mrs.