Page:Southern Life in Southern Literature.djvu/360

 

[Thomas Nelson Page was born in Hanover County, Virginia, in 1853. He was educated at Washington and Lee University. He then studied law at the University of Virginia, and between 1875 and 1893 he practiced his profession in Richmond. Since 1893 Mr. Page has lived in Washington and has given himself entirely to literary work. Like other Southern writers of his time he began his literary career by writing stories and sketches for the newspapers and magazines. His first stories were collected in 1887 and published under the title "In Ole Virginia." His later writings have included, in addition to several volumes of short stories, novels and collections of essays. Since 1893 Mr. Page has lived in Washington and given himself entirely to literary work. In 1913 he was appointed by President Wilson Ambassador to Italy.]

 

The narrator is an old darky, who is pictured in the beginning of the story as standing with a hoe and a watering pot in his hand, waiting at the "worm-fence" for the advent down the path of a noble-looking old setter, gray with age and over-round from too abundant feeding. The setter, like some old-time planter, sauntered slowly, and in lordly oblivion of the negro, up to the fence, while the latter began to take down the rails, talking meanwhile to the dog in a pretended tone of