THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO · DALLAS ATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., Limited LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO The sheaves are beaten with flails. A WOMAN RICE PLANTER PATIENCE PENNINGTON WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY OWEN WISTER AND ILLUSTRATIONS BY ALICE R. H. SMITH New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1913 All rights reserved Copyrighted 1904, 1905, 1906, 1907, By THE SUN PRINTING AND PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION. Copyright, 19

While the influences and mechanisms of the present world tend to make all parts of it alike in thought and in costume, the various nooks and corners of our own country are gradually losing their original highly accentuated characteristics, and are merging into a general similarity. Most of what you hear and see any morning in the towns of Massachusetts you will hear and see in Omaha, Denver, Seattle, or anywhere else, because the department stores advertise and sell the same kind of clothes ever

It may be wise to explain a peculiarity of our low-country rice region. From the last week in May until the first week in November it was considered deadly for an Anglo-Saxon to breathe the night air on a rice plantation; the fatal high bilious fever of the past was regarded as a certain consequence, while the African and his descendants were immune. Hence every rice planter had a summer home either in the mountains, or on the seashore, or in the belt of pine woods a few miles from the river, wh

January 1. On the rice plantation the first of January is the time for the yearly powwow, which the negroes regard as a necessary function. It is always a trial to me, for I never know what may turn up, and the talk requires great tact and patience on my part, not more, I suppose, however, than any other New Year's reception. One is so apt to forget that the "patte de velours" which every one uses in polite society is even more of a help in dealing with the most ignorant, and makes life easier t

September 3. It is time for my harvest to begin, but for some reason the rice is ripening very slowly, and I fear the first field at Casa Bianca will not be ready to cut before the 14th of this month. It has never quite recovered from the salt water and is not as fine as last year. At Cherokee one field of rice is very fine, the other not very good; but the corn is of the best, and so are the peas. A splendid crop. In July I took up thirty acres of very well-drained land, enclosed it with an Ame

Thanksgiving, November 28. I rose very early so as to make the long drive to Gregory in time for church. I sent Chloe and Dab out to collect holly and moss, for my thanksgiving service is always to lay some tokens of loving memory in the sacred spot where my loved ones lie. The morning was beautiful, but very cold; as the sun gained power it got warmer and the air was delightful. I was detained getting off so that I was late for church, but spent a long time in the churchyard placing the quantit

Easter Sunday, May 1. A beautiful, bright Easter. All nature seems to rejoice with man in this great day of triumph over death. Our little chapel, Prince Frederick's Pee Dee, is beautifully wreathed with wild flowers and vines, the work of three young girls, sisters, who, having but three days' holiday from their school teaching, devoted one of them to this thank offering and labor of love. We are all touched and softened by this act of devotion, and the blessing of the day seems upon every one.

Peaceville , July 23. With great difficulty got Chloe off to Gregory to make a visit to her daughter and see her grandchildren. I have to push and force Chloe to take the smallest holiday or relaxation. She cannot drive, so of course I had to send Dab to be her charioteer. I told her to broil a nice, 'cubator chicken and put it in the safe, and I have a very nice loaf of bread which I made yesterday, and with delicious fresh butter and tomatoes I will be independent of cooks for two whole days.

Peaceville , September 18. Went out to the mission in the pine woods with Mr. G. Quite a good congregation. They all walk miles, and bring their babies. Saw a most forlorn specimen of a man, sallow, emaciated, miserably clad, with three children wrapped in a heterogeneous collection of garments. Mr. G. turned to me and said:— "You know Mr. Lewis, Mrs. Pennington?" Before I could answer the poor gaberlunzie spoke up and said: "Oh, yes; she stood for these," waving his hand over the thin little ob

Peaceville , November 3. I drove up from Gregory alone yesterday, reaching the village just at dusk. I thought with delight of the peace and quiet of the pineland settlement after the distress and indignation which I had felt since I left it. Dab ran to open the gate, and Chloe had a nice supper ready for me, but I felt something in the air that made me lose the restful feeling, and as soon as I had finished my dainty little meal and Dab had cleared away things Chloe came in arrayed in the spotl

January 1. The new year ought to fill one with bright anticipations and hopes, but somehow I am so weighed down by realities, in the shape of bills and accounts which should be paid and for which I see no wherewithal, that my horizon seems dark and cloud-capped. I try to keep myself hard at work, as that is the only way to get rid of anxiety. I am having wool washed to make a mattress, as I need a nice single mattress, and the only way to get it at this moment is to make it. Chloe and Patty are

April 9. My wedding day thirty-six years ago! It does not seem possible that there can be one atom of the intensely pleasure loving, gay slip of a girl left in the philosopher who, battered and bruised by life's battle, looks with calm, serene eyes on the stormy path behind her and with absolute faith forward to the sunset hour. It does not seem as though the ego could possibly be the same. Had some magic mirror been possible, in which that girl could have been shown herself, and her solitary li

Peaceville , July 7. It has been desperately hot and when I got a cordial invitation from Mrs. G. to spend a few days with her on Pawleys Island I was overjoyed. My old summer home was there, and since we had to sell the place ten years ago I have never been willing to see the beach again, but now I am just gasping for a breath of the sea and I made my arrangements to go to-day. My old summer home at Pawleys Island. I had Jerry King ploughing in cow-peas at Cherokee, and he is a fine boatman, so

August 27. Dear old Daddy Ancrum came dressed in his Sunday best to tell me all he could remember of his past life. I had asked him some time ago to come some day when he felt quite well—but I was quite touched at his dressing in his very best for the occasion. It was most interesting to me and I wrote it all down. According to the dates he gave me he is 91 years old—with all his faculties and in good health. Next Sunday there is to be a "funeral sarmint," preached for Chloe's aunt, a person of

September 8. Rose at five and read the lessons on the piazza and then churned. There is certainly a wonderful freshness and life in the early morning air, a kind of inspiration in watching the birth of a new day. I get terribly hungry, however, before I can get any breakfast. This morning a delightful waiter arrived. It had shrimps and flounders fresh from the sea and great yellow pears with one red cheek. I did not go to the plantation, so had a day off and enjoyed it thoroughly. I have a most

We print to-day a South Carolina lady's story of her experiences as a rice planter on her own account, as the actual manager of two large plantations in that State. It is a story which is all the more interesting and instructive because it is told in a manner of charming simplicity and without a trace of self-consciousness or self-assertion. Independently of the information it conveys it has attraction for every reader by reason of that manner and as a revelation of a feminine character in which