Page:Southern Life in Southern Literature.djvu/191

 "And promise to keep it," ses I.

"Well, I will, cause I know that you wouldn’t give me nothin that was n’t worth keepin."

They all agreed they would hang up a bag for me to put Miss Mary's Crismus present in, in the back porch; and bout nine o’clock I told ’em good evenin and went home.

I sot up till midnight, and when they was all gone to bed I went softly into the back gate, and went up to the porch, and thar, shore enuff, was a grate big meal bag hangin to the jice. It was monstrous unhandy to git to it, but I was tarmined not to back out. So I sot some chairs on top of a bench and got hold of the rope and let myself down into the bag; but jest as I was gittin in, the bag swung agin the chairs, and down they went with a terrible racket. But nobody did n’t wake up but old Miss Stallinses grate big cur dog, and here he cum rippin and tearin through the yard like rath, and round and round he went tryin to find what was the matter. I sot down in the bag and did n’t breathe louder nor a kitten for fear he’d find me out, and after a while he quit barkin. The wind begun to blow bominable cold, and the old bag kep turnin round and swinging so it made me seasick as the mischief. I was fraid to move for fear the rope would break and let me fall, and thar I sot with my teeth rattlin like I had a ager. It seemed like it would never come daylight, and I do blieve if I did n’t love Miss Mary so powerful I would froze to death; for my hart was the only spot that felt warm, and it did n’t beat moren two licks a minit, only when I thought how she would be sprised in the mornin, and then it went in a canter. Bimeby the cussed old dog come up on the porch and begun to smell about the bag, and then he barked like he thought he’d treed something. "Bow! wow! wow!" ses he. Then he’d smell agin and try to git up to the bag. "Git out!" ses I, very low, for fear they would hear me. "Bow! wow! wow!" ses he. "Be gone!