little cloud gathered on the horizon-there was a single burst of thunder-a single flash that blinded me for a moment-and then, oh what a shriek of agony from the wretched mothers! Three of the children had been killed by the fatal bolt. Never, ah never shall I forget that sight of sorrow, and the wailings of those broken hearts! I have seen the strong man crushed; the fond mother swooning over the loss of her first-born; the young and beautiful, just stepping into life on a pathway of flowers, stung by the serpent, and snatched away, leaving for the survivors, in the dim future, only a long despair; but never had I witnessed the intense grief of these simple slaves. All that they had to live for was wrapped up in the stricken infants that now, all lifeless, they pressed to their distracted bosoms. Leaving the scene of sorrow, I entered the great pine forest that leads to the town of Augusta. The woods were on fire. The road lies on a high ridge or backbone, and at short intervals on each side there are lateral ridges running down into deep reed-brakes below. Along one of these vertebræ, on my left, a mighty volume of smoke and flame and eddying leaves came rolling rapidly toward me. The road itself, but rarely traveled at this season of the year, was covered several inches deep with pine straw, which was soon in a blaze. There was literally "a fire in my rear." Dashing forward, I meant to drive down a ridge on my right until the road should be cleared, but the flames, swept by the whirling winds, had by this time burst out there, and came surging into the sea of fire just behind me. I had no choice but to run for it. Though noonday, it was as black as midnight. The smoke of one hundred thousand acres of combustibles was around me. The roar of the devouring element, like the boom of a tremendous surf, was above me. The flames were protrading, like the tongues of boa constrictors, on each side of me, melting the varnish of my buggy and crisping my whiskers; and, ever and anon, the crash of a falling pine, uprooted by the fire, seemed to be discharg ing minute-guns in token of my distress. On rushed the fiery torrent-flank and rear-up hill and down-and on I drove, at a killing gait, only ten paces in advance; my carpet-bag smoking, my hat and coat singed, my face and hands charred, when suddenly the wind shifted, and the flaming dragon plunged away to the left, hissing through the crackling reed-brakes, and shaking his terrible crest among the lofty trees. Exhausted by this frightful contention, I was glad to find shelter at the wayside inn of my worthy friend, Mr. Hiram Breeland, of Greene County. He is famous for peach and honey; for river trout, venison steaks, and fried chicken, and indeed for every thing that a weary traveler covets. His wife is a model in her way. They have had eighteen children, and are yet a young and handsome couple. Far and near this is known as "the musical family." Six daughters in the bloom of life, richly dowered with those perfections that men sigh for and never forget, possess rare musical gifts; and THE BEREAVED NEGROES. THE WOODS ON FIRE. their concerts with voice and violins are really enchanting. Excited and nervous after the fiery ordeal I had passed, they soothed my soul with melody, and my slumbers with charming dreams. Long after the witching hour of night, in the delicious delirium between sleeping and waking, the tinkle of the guitar and a sweet voice, softer than a sigh, mingled with the lullaby of the winds in the tops of the aged pines. Their names are in harmony with their music. What can be more melodious than Elizabeth Amanda, Priscilla Brunetta, Louvena Anneta, Martha Miranda, Zelphi Emmeline, and Sophronie Angelina? This house has been a favorite stopping-place for candidates for many years, and Breeland is pretty well posted up with anecdotes. When Harry Cage and Franklin E. Plummer were canvassing for Congress they came here together, and Cage began to joke and sport with the children, much to the mother's delight. But Plummer soon won her heart. He picked up the little wee one, just then toddling about, placed it across his lap, turned up its little petticoats, and began to search for red bugs! Next morning Cage stole out before day, went to the wood-pile, cut a turn of wood, determined to win the "old lady's" favor by making her fire, while Plummer, as he fancied, lay snoring in bed. While toiling up the hill with his load, what was his astonishment to see the old 'un milking her cow, and Plummer holding off the calf by the tail! swer. A day or two after this, said Squire B., Cage made a tip-top speech at Greene Court House. It was hard to beat, and Plummer knew it. So when he got up he said: "Fellow-citizens, I would answer the gentleman's argument if there was any argument to anIt reminds me of an honest couple down in my county who are troubled with a very small specimen of a child that cries all night. The husband, much tormented, complained that he could not get a moment's sleep. "Spank it, then," says the wife. He fumbled about, but the child continued to cry. "Well, why don't you spank it?" says she. "Because," said he, "I can't find any thing to spank!" It is hardly necessary to say that Cage "incontinently caved in," and refused to travel any farther with the Yankee wagon-boy. "Plummer was hard pressed sometime after this, being charged with sundry matters affecting his integrity. He deliberately sat down and wrote an account of his visit to my house, charging that he had attempted to swindle me, had behaved with gross indecorum to my family, and had been kicked out of doors. This he contrived to have published, and it went the round of the papers, creating great excitement. He called on me for my certificate, which, of course, was promptly given, for I was surprised and indignant at such a slander. The reaction was tremendous; and after this nobody in this section would believe any thing against Plummer." When the Hon. Powhatan Ellis, a very finished gentleman, was traveling through this district electioneering for some office, he lost his portmanteau in attempting to ford a creek. | Speaking of ra Plummer was a poor young lawyer, boarding, or loafing, at a tavern in Westville, when he announced himself for Congress. He hadn't a single "red" in his pocket. He opened the canvass in Benton, put up at the best hotel, dined a dozen friends every day, and opened a very liberal account at the bar. On the third day, when about to depart, he cried out to the crowd, "Gentlemen, I wish to make my public acknowledgments to our generous landlord. He has treated me like a prince; he has feasted my friends; his tipple has run freely. Sir," said he, turning to the landlord, "if you ever come to my town don't go to a hotel: put up with me; I shall be proud to reciprocate your hospitality!" With these words he vaulted on his h, and was out of sight before the astonished Boniface could "say turkey" about his bill. While sojourning at this pleasant retreat it was agreed, one day, that we should go out on a deer-drive. I was wrapping up a lunch to put in my pocket, and said to my boy Tom, "Well, Tom, how about this butter? I can't put it in my pocket." "No, massa," said Tom, "him run away. But you kin eat him 'fore you go!" On a deer-drive in the South one man follows the hounds in the thickets or reed brakes where the herds usually feed, while three or four others take their stands at various points which they are expected to cross in their flight. The dogs soon broke cover; a noble doe came bounding by me. I fired and missed; but passing on, the Squire, who is a noted shot, brought her down. The outcries of the huntsman soon called us down to the brake, and there we saw a most extraordinary spectacle. Two bucks of the largest size in deadly combat, their branching antlers so interlocked that neither could use them against the other. The ground was torn up all around; their sides were dripping blood; and they had evidently fought long before this singular union of their weapons terminated the combat. Their furious struggles at our approach only united them more closely; and thus they would have perished. The hunters shot them, and informed me that they had often found the skeletons of bucks that had thus died, their horns so locked that no ingenuity could undo them. The buck is a timid animal until wounded. He then stands at bay, and is dangerous to approach. He is the sworn enemy of the rattlesnake. When he perceives one, he walks around it until it throws itself into a coil, and then the back vaults into the air and comes down upon it with his pointed hoofs. Not content with killing it, he stamps it into shreds. Those noxious reptiles always multiply as the deer diminish. VOL. XXV.-No. 145.-C on the Bigbee Ri bayou of St. John, in the ..... "Walk this way," said Creecy. He led me to a point where three or four ditches, communicating with the bayou and with the swamp, intersected, and I counted a dozen dead moccasins lying about, and some twenty navigating the different ditches. "This is our only game,' said he. "I shoot moccasins every afternoon!" Mr. Michel lost an excellent purchaser for his place, and my brother editor held on until the snakes fairly run him out of the house. There was once a man by the name of Gallendee living in Hancock county, who was, perhaps, rather unjustly suspected of hog stealing. He came running in from the woods one day shouting murder, the shirt fairly whipped off his back. He assured me it had been done by a coach-whip snake that had wrapped itself round his leg and thrashed him over the shoulders; but uncharitable people suspected it had been done by Judge Lynch! The same man went to the late Judge Daniel to complain of these accusations, and to ask his advice. "Well," said the Judge, "I will tell you what to do. If you feel innocent, face these charges like a man. But if you are guilty, get into Louisiana as soon as you can." That evening his client crossed Pearl River, and became a citizen of our sister State. Having recruited at this pleasant anchorage, I bid adieu to my friend Breeland, and set out for the village of Augusta, bowling merrily along in my blood-red buggy. The road is beautiful, roofed over with trees and tendrils, and the air fragrant with the breath of flowers. There was, however, one drawback to my comfort-myriads of flies of every species, that swarmed around and ravenously cupped the blood from my horse. It was what is appropriately termed here "fly time”—that is to say, the period when this numerous family of scourges have it all their own way, and neither man nor beast can sojourn in the woods without much suffering. Now the deer plunge into deep pools and lakes, leaving only their heads exposed, and browse only during a portion of the night while these insects sleep. The cattle from a thousand hills seek the abodes of man, and huddle around some ang pine or in some open field to escape mous Coon Morris. Being advised to take a tormentors. near cut when within three miles, I turned to the right and drove ahead through leafy by. paths and across deserted fields grown over with stunted pines. For three hours I drove about, describing three segments of a circle, and finally got back to the point I started from. [Nota bene: Let all travelers stick to the beaten road, for in this country one may travel twenty miles without meeting a traveler or a finger-board.] The country through which I passed was poor, the population sparse, and no indications of the proximity of a town that I had heard of for twenty-five years. I drove on, however, expectation on tip-toe, the sun pouring down vertically, and my flagging steed sinking above his fetlocks in the sand, when, lo! the ancient village stood before mean extensive parallelogram, garnished round with twelve or fifteen crumbling tenements, the wrecks of by-gone years! Not a tree stood in the gaping square for the eye to rest upon; the grass was all withered up; the burning sun fell on the white and barren sand as on a huge mirror, and was reflected back until your cheeks scorched and your eyes filled with tears. Even of these dilidated houses several were unoccupied, and we drove round two-thirds of the square before we could find a human being to direct us to the tavern. It was a log-cabin, with one room, a deal table, some benches and cots, and a back shed for kitchen. Stable there was none, nor bar, nor servant, nor landlord visible. I turned my horse on the public square and took peaceable possession of the establishment. Nobody was to be seen. I was hungry and fatigued. The idea of a town once famous, and its hundred-and-one little comforts for the trayeler, had buoyed me up during the morning drive, and fancy had diagramed something very different from what I was then realizing. In a few hours, however, the bachelor landlord came in. Not expecting company he had gone out on a foraging expedition. He feasted us on delicious venison, and, being a Virginian, soon concocted an ample julep. The mint grew near the grave of a jolly lawyer, a son of the "Old Dominion," who died there a few years before. No man can live in such a place without losing his energies. The mind stagnates, and in six months one would go completely asleep. I never saw such a picture of desolation. All was silence and solitude. In reply to my inquiry, my old friend, Colonel Mixon, said that times were dull; there was a little activity in one line only; and hobbling off he soon returned with a pair of babies in his arms-twin gems, plump, blue On a sudden curve of the road I found myself near one of these "stamping grounds," and a simultaneous roar from five hundred infuriated animals gave notice of my danger. It is well known that the Spanish matadores provoke the wounded bulls in the arena by flaunting the moleta or blood-red flag in their faces. It was the vermilion of my buggy that excited this bellowing herd. They snuffed the air, planted their heads near the ground, tore it up with their hoofs and horns, and glared at me with savage eyes. The fierce phalanx blocked the road, and it was the "better part of valor" to retreat. The instant I wheeled the pursuit commenced. A cloud of dust enveloped them, and the trampling of their feet was like the roll of thunder. My horse dashed forward frantic with terror, and on they plunged on every side, crushing down the brush-wood in their course, goring and tumbling over each other, filling the forest with their dreadful cries, and gathering nearer and nearer in the fearful chase. The struggle now became desperate. In five minutes we should have been overturned and trampled to death; but at this juncture Tom threw out my overcoat, and with an awful clamor they paused to fight over it, and to tear it into shreds. Driving at full speed, I directed Tom to toss out the cushion. The infuriated devils trampled it into atoms, and came charging on, their horns clashing against the buggy, and ripping up the ribs of my horse. At this fearful moment we were providentially saved. A huge oak, with a forked top, had fallen by the wayside, and into this I plunged my horse breasthigh, and he was safe, the back of the buggy being then the only assailable point. At this the whole column made a dash, but I met the foremost with six discharges from my revolver; two bottles of Cognac were shivered on their foreheads; next a cold turkey; and, finally, a bottle of Scotch snuff-the last shot in the locker! This did the business. Such a sneezing and bellowing was never heard before; and the one that got the most of it put out with the whole troop at his heels, circling round, scenting the blood of the wounded, and shaking the earth with their thundering tramp. I was now fairly in for it, and made up my mind to remain until night, when I knew they would disperse. I was relieved, however, by the approach of some cattle-drivers, who, galloping up on shaggy but muscular horses, with whips twenty feet long, which they manage with surprising dexterity, soon drove the belligerent herd to their cow-pens, for the purpose of mark-eyed, rosy-cheeked, hanging around his neck like ing and branding. This is done every year in "fly time." The cattle ranging over an area of thirty square miles are now easily collected, driven to a common pen or pound, when the respective owners put their mark and brand on the increase of the season. Thus this Egyptian plague is turned to a useful purpose. I was now approaching the ancient village of Augusta, once the stamping-ground of the fa flowers on the stump of a storm-battered oak. Counselor Barrett, who seemed thoroughly posted in this branch of statistics, informed me that, during the last twelve months, thirteen matrons of that vicinity had produced doublets! The Colonel said that any disconsolate pair who would board with him six months, and drink from a peculiar spring on the premises, without having their expectations realized, should have a free ticket at his table for sixty days to try it until the last." Married couples in search of heirs often cross the Atlantic, or drug themselves with nostrums and stinking mineral waters, when a single summer in these pine-woods would accomplish what they desire without extraordinary efforts, and at one-twentieth of the expense. | have only one word the same room. A very buxom damser The old town next day presented a more live- Walker seized his arm. M Farren hearing the ly scene. That certain pre monitory of a piny-woods' gathering, the beer and ginger-bread cart, came rumbling into the square. Rickety vehicles, of odd shapes, laden with melons, trundled along behind. A corner shanty displayed several suspicious-looking jugs and kegs. Buck negroes, dressed in their holiday suits, strode in, looking about for the candidates as one would for the giraffe. No candidate except the Hon. Robert J. Walker had visited the defunct town for years. It was quite an event. Finally, the stout sovereigns from the country came in, and the comedy commenced. The largest portion of the crowd was in the court-house to hear the orators, but a pretty considerable group was posted about the doggery. A number were playing "old sledge" on the heads of empty whisky barrels, and others were discussing the preliminaries of a quar ter race. Three of the candidates had spoken, when the late Judge Mitchell (formerly a well-known Member of Congress from Tennessee) rose. After an elaborate reply to the arguments of two of them, he turned to the third, and laying his hand on his head, said, "I THE HURRICANE |