Fast as the fatal symbol flies, In arms the huts and hamlets rise; From winding glen, from upland brown, The swarthy smith took dirk and brand; From The Lady of the Lake cubit : grisly: hideous or frightful. crosslet a small cross. the English cubit is eighteen inches long. Lomond: a beautiful lake in Scotland. anathema: curse. execration: evil speaking. -target: a shield to protect a soldier. — hamlet: a village. falconer: one who trains hawks to fight. 10 15 WOMEN ON AN OLD-TIME SOUTHERN PLANTATION SYDNEY GEORGE FISHER SYDNEY GEORGE FISHER (1856- ), an American lawyer and author, was born in Philadelphia. He was graduated from the academic department of Western University, Pennsylvania, and from the law department of Harvard University. He was ad5 mitted to the bar of Philadelphia in 1883. He has been a leader in the movement for civil service reform in our government. Mr. Fisher is the author of several historical works. Among these are: The Making of Pennsylvania; The True Benjamin Franklin; The True William Penn; Men, Women, and Manners in Colonial Days. 10 The plantation house, surrounded by its stables, barns, and negro quarters, often looked like a small village. Bathed in the soft, indolent sunlight, in the midst of luxurious vegetation, the trees filled with mocking-birds, the horses and cattle wan15 dering everywhere, and hundreds of blacks with their songs and irresistible humor breaking forth at every moment, it was a most attractive scene, in which many a traveler lingered long. Some of the plantations were laid out with handsome 20 grounds, avenues of trees, and the landscape gardening of England. A great many varied duties necessarily devolved on the women at a plantation. They took care of the sick; and as a plantation of any pretensions had usually two or three hundred slaves, this was by no means a trifling task. They superintended the spinning and weaving of cloth and the cutting and making of all the clothes for the plantation, 5 and they usually had a great number of household servants to look after. They learned to command and enforce obedience among savages. They had to train slaves in habits of order, and teach them the trades and occupations which were essential 10 to the self-supporting character of their little community. They often taught their own children to read and write. Many of them were zealous in giving religious and moral instruction to the negroes, and to this custom must be partly credited the tam- 15 ing and civilizing of the blacks, so that as years passed they became less dangerous. In the Revolution they did little or no harm to their masters, and in the Civil War they often saved valuable property and befriended their former masters when 20 they were at the mercy of invading armies. Besides these duties, which were especially assigned to the women, it was usually important for them to have a thorough understanding of the general management of the plantation; for the 25 men were necessarily often absent, and it was not uncommon for a woman to be left alone for several months in charge of a huge plantation. It seems to have been a more varied and broadening life than has been generally supposed, and it de5 veloped important qualities in both the women and the men, for each plantation was a little kingdom in itself. THE ANGLER'S REVEILLE1 HENRY VAN DYKE HENRY VAN DYKE (1852– ), an American minister, poet, and man of letters, was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania. After 10 his graduation at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and at Princeton University, he entered the Theological Seminary at Princeton, and in 1878 was ordained to the ministry. His first pastorate was at Newport, Rhode Island. After a service of five years there, he was called to the Brick Presbyterian Church of 15 New York City. In 1900 he was elected professor of English literature in Princeton University, a position that he still holds. 20 What time the rose of dawn is laid across the lips of night, And all the drowsy little stars have fallen asleep in light; 'T is then a wandering wind awakes, and runs from tree to tree, And borrows words from all the birds to sound the reveille. 1 From The Toiling of Felix. Copyright, 1900. Charles Scribner's Sons, Publishers. This is the carol the Robin throws Listen how boldly it flows, Sally on sally: Tirra-lirra, Down the river, Fish are breaking, Time for waking. Tup, tup, tup! Do you hear? All clear Wake up! The phantom flood of dreams has ebbed and vanished with the dark, And like a dove the heart forsakes the prison of the ark; Now forth she fares through friendly woods and diamond-fields of dew, While every voice cries out, "Rejoice!" as if the world were new. 5 10 15 20 |