A Daughter of Maryland — page 40: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

a A DAUGHTER OF MARYLAND. 25 Yit am a powerful lonesome place, an’ dar weren’t a soul in sight w’en de massa pulled up his hoss under de ol’ beech, which am standin’ yet, an’ a tossin’ de reins to me, just said: ‘Stay right hyur, Frost, till I come back.’ ‘*Den he went inter de ol’ ruined building, an’ I wuz lef’? dar erlone wiv dem hosses. Ob coorse de ol’ man weren’t afeerd, honey, but de time go so slow dat I got anxious waitin’ dar. I got a long slender stick an’ broke it up inter leetle bits; den I got anuther, an’ I broke dat up; still de massa didn’t come. I couldn’t hear a sound, sabe de watah a-runnin’ away in der ribber. Bress me! how dat ribber do roar, honey !’’ ‘‘W’en I had waited jess es long es yit seemed [ could wait, I did a berry wrong t’ing—sumthin’ dat has given me a ha’nt ebber sence. I hope de Lord forgib me, but I dis’beyed de ol’ massa, an’ lef’? my post. Yo’ see I didn’t _ know but sumthin’ had happened to him, so I crept up to de ol’ mill an’ I peeked in. But I couldn’t see a t’ing, nor hear a t’ing. Den I went eround to de udder side, an’ climbin’ up on some rotten lumber I looked in at de winder. ‘*‘De moon wuz shinin’ on dis side, so eberyt’ing seemed as plain as day. How de ribber do roar, honey! Jess let me git my bref afore I tell yo’ whut I see by dat moonlight in dat ol’ mill. I nebber fergit yit, an’ seems to me I see yit now plainer den ebber. ‘“Massa Southard wuz standin’ on de furder side wiv a pistol in his hand, an’ a look as I had nebber seen him hab afore. Ober on one side wuz Massa Berners, yo’ father’s overseer, a’ ’rectly opposite Massa Southard, but standin’ wiv his back to me, so I corldn’t see who he wuz, wuz another man wiv a pistol in his hand. Massa Berners wuz beginnin’ to count, an’ I knowed there wuz a duel on. How de ribber do roar, honey! ’Pears like I[hain’t got bref lef’ to tell de res.’ Right atween them two duelists, wiv her fair han’s held up as if she wuz prayin’, wuz a [S co comicboo