We started very early in the morning, Daddy Aleck driving, with baskets packed with lunch for the day and provisions to cook, for we expected to stay three or four days. The drive of thirty miles was charming until it got too hot, and we stopped under a tree by a spring, took out the horses and tied them in the shade and had our lunch, and rested until it became a little cooler. Loch Adèle, as we girls had named the farm, was a very pretty place with a mill and large pond, which we dignified5 into a loch, much to papa’s amusement. A pretty rolling country, and the Pee Dee River, called the Yadkin as soon as it passed the line from South to North Carolina, ran a small rocky stream about a mile from the rambling6 farmhouse7. Flats had brought supplies in large quantities up the river from Chicora, and most of{214} the Charleston furniture had been brought by rail to Cheraw, fifteen miles away, and hauled out to this place, so that the house was thoroughly8 furnished, pictures hanging on the walls, because it seemed better than to keep them packed. The two lovely bas-reliefs of Thorwaldsen’s, “Night” and “Morning,” looked especially beautiful hanging on the white walls of the drawing-room, and the whole place was homelike and delightful10 with our Charleston belongings11. And the poor negroes were so glad to see us and to realize that “Miss” was going to look after them and to the best of her ability take “Maussa’s” place. They wanted to hear all about papa’s illness and death and the funeral, and who had been honored by taking special place in it. Mamma was interviewed by each one separately, and had to repeat all the details over and over. She was very patient, to my great surprise, and, I think, to the people’s, too, for she had never been as willing to listen to their long rigmaroles as papa had been. But now she listened to all and consoled them and wept with them over their mutual12 loss. Altogether the visit did us both good.
Old Daddy Hamedy, who was head man on the place, had been a first-class carpenter and still{215} was, but when there was needed some one to take supervision13 of the farm and people up there, papa chose him on account of his character and intelligence. Papa had engaged a white man, a Mr. Yates, who lived some miles away, to give an eye to the place from time to time and write him how things went on, and Hamedy was to apply to Mr. Yates if anything went wrong. He was originally from the North, but he had bought a farm near the little town of Morven some years before, and lived here ever since. Mamma sent to ask Mr. Yates to come and see her, and he came. He was a very smart man, but impressed me most unpleasantly as unreliable and unscrupulous, as I watched him talking to mamma. He evidently felt that, papa being gone, his time had come, and was quite sure he could manage my mother easily. He was most flattering in his admiration14, which was not surprising, for my mother was beautiful in her plain black frock and widow’s cap.
In trying to make easy conversation as he sat and talked to us, he asked: “Miss Allston, do you smoke?”
In some surprise my mother answered: “No, I have never smoked.”
“Well, well,” he said. “You wouldn’t find{216} another lady of your age in this country that didn’t smoke.”
This nearly upset my gravity, for the idea of my mother’s smoking was too much for me, and I went out down to the mill-pond. Into this lake my father had had rolled many hogsheads packed securely with bottles of old Madeira wine, as being the best chance of saving them from the Yankees. They were certainly not safe at Chicora Wood, only about twenty miles from the mouth of Winyah Bay, when gunboats could run up from the sea so easily. So the wine was packed and shipped by his flats in charge of faithful men. I remember when the flats were going, on one occasion, papa wanted to send up a very beautiful marble group of “The Prodigal15 Son,” which was always in the drawing-room at Chicora, and he called in Joe Washington, who was to take charge of the flat, to look at it, and told him that he would have it carefully packed by the carpenter, and he wanted him to be specially9 careful of it; whereupon Joe said:
“Please, sir, don’t have it pack. I’ll tek good kere of it, but please lef it so en I kin3 look at it en enjoy it. I’ll neber let nuthin’ hut it.”
So papa acceded16 and did not have it packed,{217} and on that open flat, amid barrels and boxes and propelled by oars17 and poles, only a little shed at one end under which the eight hands could take shelter in case of rain, “The Prodigal Son” and the happy father made their journey of 300 miles in perfect safety. And I may say here the group was brought back when the war was over, and now rests in the old place in the drawing-room at Chicora Wood. How it escaped Sherman I do not know; some one must have hid it in the woods.
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1
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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reassure
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| v.使放心，使消除疑虑 | |
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kin
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| n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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6
rambling
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| adj.[建]凌乱的，杂乱的 | |
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7
farmhouse
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| n.农场住宅（尤指主要住房） | |
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8
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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9
specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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10
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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belongings
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| n.私人物品，私人财物 | |
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12
mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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13
supervision
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| n.监督，管理 | |
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14
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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15
prodigal
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| adj.浪费的，挥霍的，放荡的 | |
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16
acceded
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| v.（正式）加入( accede的过去式和过去分词 )；答应；（通过财产的添附而）增加；开始任职 | |
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17
oars
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| n.桨，橹( oar的名词复数 )；划手v.划（行）( oar的第三人称单数 ) | |
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