"Cracker Jim" [pp. 51-70]

1887.~ "Crackerjit'i." 61
ney, he had been in the habit of encamping hain't no more sperit naow; the stiff'nin'
for the night; and having unhitched and air gone clean outen me.
watered his mules, he sat down to his sim- As many as seven days were required to
pIe meal. A split oak basket, containing complete the journey, at the end of which
raw bacon, which was to be boiled on coals, Jim Snyder and his team had reached the
and hoe-cake of corn meal, was to supply outskirts of Marion, a town situated in a
his food whenever his resting place was too high, sandy4and region-so named in conremote from a store or fr~rmhouse to afford tradistinction from the canebrake, or prairie
a greater variety; but although the basket country, which lay four or five miles below;
had been removed from the wagon to its where its inhabitants owned large and fertile
post of duty at his side, it remained un- cotton plantations, which yielded handsome
opened. A thousand recollections crowd- revenues-land so lavishly and enormously
ed his mind, each one bringing with it some- productive that during the war it was called
thing that sharpened his disappointment. "the corn-crib of the Confederacy."
Drawing from its place of concealment about Ample wealth and leisure had aff~~rded
his waist a pouch of buckskin, containing the people of Marion opportunity for easy
all the money he possessed in the world, he living and broad culture. Then, as now,
counted it over, preparatory to securing it it was an educational centre, possessing two
for the night. With these few dollars, he had large seminaries for girls and a college for
purposed to buy a painted table and three boys, with a consequent series of infant and
painted chairs —articles of luxury hitherto preparatory schools, and sometimes preunknown in Big Mountain. This extrava- sumed to claim equality with Tuscaloosa
gance of furniture was meant to please the herself in letters and social refinement-a
refined taste of her whose heart until now temerity which was resented by the seat of
he had never doubted to be his own; a the university and former capital with ridisplit oak chair with a rawhide seat was cule and contempt. A railway connected
quite good enough for him. With Dick it with the markets of Mobile and Selma;
Harjoe's assistance he had "figgered it up," but adjacent towns and villages were reached
so as to make this unusual expenditure con- only by private conveyance, or the old-fashsist with the little sum over his actual neces- ioned stage-coach, which was expected to
sities; and Dick had told him that the stand every day at two o'clock before the
figgeration war jest ez good ez ef the entrance of the hotel, and whose appr'~ach
jestice 0' the peace had done it." Counting was duly heralded by the driver's horn.
money is no doubt subversive of sentiment; It was in emulation of this time-honored
but Jim's emotion had already reached a custom that Jim had pr~~vided himself with a
climax, and hastily putting his treasure horn, which, though taken from the head of
back into its place of security, he did what a cow and quite free from any embellishmany a philosopher has done before him ment of art, surpassed, thanks to the lungs
-he buried his face in his hands and wept. of its athletic owner, the stage-driver's in
Even so much tenderness can dwell in the sonorousness. Ascending a hill, which
heart of a man who wears copperas breeches partly overlooked the town, he drew a blast
and a homespun shirt. so shrill and loud that it roused the neigh lIe rose betimes next morning from his borhood, and even awakened some of his
bed in the wagon. "I usen ter be ez peert own old enthusiasm. Children rushed out of
ez er lark, en could e'en a'most beat the stately mansions, and ran down handsome
sun hisse'f risin'- but it`pears ter me I walks and carriage avenues, and scampered