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Updated: June 27, 2025
Nothing remained but pumpkins, sweet potatoes, and Cheon's tardy watermelons, and the sight of the glaring blotches of pumpkins filled Cheon with fury. "Pumpee-kin for Clisymus!" he raved, kicking furiously at the hideous wens. Not if he knew it! and going to some stores left in our care by the Line Party, he openly stole several tins of preserved vegetables.
The turkey was served at supper, and with it an enormous boiled cabbage one of Cheon's successes. Dan was in clover, boiled cabbage being considered nectar fit for the gods, and after supper he put the remnants of the feast away for his breakfast. "Cold cabbage goes all right," he said, as he stowed it carefully away "particularly for breakfast."
He did not add that he would have trusted no mortal with the care of the fires that night. At earliest dawn we were awakened by wild, despairing shrieks, and were instinctively groping for our revolvers when we remembered the fatted fowls and Cheon's lonely vigil, and turning out, dressed hastily, realising that Christmas had come, and the pullets had sung their last "sing-out."
It came to us on the verandah. Two very full Mailbags borne by two very empty black boys, and in an incredibly short space of time there were two very full black boys, and two very empty mail-bags; for the mail was our delayed mail, and exactly what we wanted; and the boys had found all they wanted at Cheon's hospitable hands.
When we appeared the stars were still dimly shining, but Cheon's face was as luminous as a full moon, as, greeting each and all of us with a "Melly Clisymus," he suggested a task for each and all.
She certainly excelled in "rounding-up goat," riding the old Billy like a race-horse; and with Rosy filling the position of housemaid to perfection, Jimmy's Nellie proving invaluable in her vigorous treatment of the rejected and the wood-heap gossip filling in odd times, life so far as it was dependent on black folk was running on oiled wheels: the house was clean and orderly, the garden flourished; and as the melons grew apace, throwing out secondary leaves in defiance of Cheon's prophecies, Billy Muck grew more and more enthusiastic, and, usurping the position of Chairman of the Directors, he inspired the shareholders with so much zeal that the prophecies were almost fulfilled through a surfeit of watering.
Every chair and stool on the run was mustered; two tables were placed end to end beneath that clustering, mistletoe and covered with clean white tablecloths remembering the story of the rags and hobble rings we refrained from serviettes the hop-beer was set in canvas water bags to keep it cool; and Cheon pointing out that the approach from the kitchens was not all that could be desired, an enormous tent-fly was stretched away from the roof of the verandah, extending it half-way to the kitchen, and further greenery was used, decorating it within and without to make it a fitting passage-way for the transport of Cheon's triumphs.
But Cheon's cup of happiness was to brim over that day, for after answering every question hurled at him, the Dandy sang cheerfully: "He put in his thumb and pulled out a plum," and dragged forth a ham from its hiding-place, with a laughing, "What a good boy am I." With a swoop Cheon was on it, and the Dandy, trying to regain it, said, "Here, hold hard!
Daily the soakage yielded less and less water, and daily Billy Muck and Cheon scrimmaged over its yield; for Billy's melons were promising to pay a liberal dividend, and Cheon's garden was crying aloud for water.
Every evening the fun commenced about sundown, and the entire community assembled to watch it; for it was worth watching fowls dodged, and scurried, and squawked, as the staff and the rejected, under Cheon's directions, chivied and danced and screamed between them and their desire, the lubras cheering to the echo every time one of the birds gave in, and stalked, cackling and indignant, up the ladder into the branches of the coolibar; or pursuing runaways that had outwitted them, in shrieking, pell-mell disorder, while Cheon, fat and perspiring, either shouted orders and cheered lustily, bounded wrathfully alter both runaways and lubras, or collapsed, doubled up with uncontrollable laughter, at the squawk of amazement from fowls which, having gained their old haunt, had found Jimmy there waiting to receive them.
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