"I seen he eye light on her as she came down the steps smilin'."
UNC' EDINBURG
A PLANTATION ECHO
BY THOMAS NELSON PAGE
ILLUSTRATED BY B. WEST CLINEDINST
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
NEW YORK, 1897
Copyright, 1889, 1895, by
Charles Scribner's Sons
TROW DIRECTORY
PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY
NEW YORK
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
"I seen he eye light on her as she came down the steps smilin'." . .. . . . Frontispiece.
"I got de ker'idge heah for you."
"We come 'way next mornin'."
"Mars George lead her out on de porch."
"Hit begin so low evybody had to stop talkin'."
"Miss Charlotte she 'mos' 'stracted."
"An' Marse George he ain' answer."
"I got de ker'idge heah for you."
"Well, suh, dat's a fac—dat's what Marse George al'ays said. 'Tishard to spile Christmas anyways."
The speaker was "Unc' Edinburg," the driver from Werrowcoke, where Iwas going to spend Christmas; the time was Christmas Eve, and the placethe muddiest road in eastern Virginia—a measure which, I feel sure,will, to those who have any experience, establish its claim todistinction.
A half-hour before he had met me at the station, the queerest-looking,raggedest old darkey conceivable, brandishing a cedar-staffed whip ofenormous proportions in one hand, and clutching in the other a calicoletter-bag with a twisted string; and with the exception of a briefinterval of temporary suspicion on his part, due to the unfortunatefact that my luggage consisted of only a hand-satchel instead of atrunk, we had been steadily progressing in mutual esteem.
"Dee's a boy standin' by my mules; I got de ker'idge heah for you," hadbeen his first remark on my making myself known to him. "Mistis say as