I heard, while in the South, of a doctor, a little, short man, who rode a
Canadian horse, a scraggy little specimen, and who, in yellow fever time,
used to ride right straight into a drug store, and order his prescription,
catch it up, wheel his pony round on his hind legs, stick in the spurs
into the flanks of the animal, and go out in a clean gallop.
[Illustration: NO TIME TO LOSE.]
Though the writer never saw this remarkable feat, there is one more
ludicrous, to which he was an eye-witness.
One fine day, while in Charleston, sitting musing in the window of the
Victoria Hotel, I saw an African, with bare feet and legs, his whole
attire consisting of a coarse shirt and brief trousers, drive a mule
attached to a dray, on which was a box, up towards a milliner's store,
opposite. The negro jumped from the dray, and, with whip in hand, ran into
the store to ascertain if that was the place to leave the box.
[Illustration: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST.]
The faithful donkey followed his master directly into the store, nor
stopped till the wheels of the cart brought up against the door-jambs. The
ladies, with whom the front store was crowded, screamed with terror, and
fled towards the back room, where the pretty milliner girls were sewing.
They caught the panic and sight of the donkey's head and ears in the front
shop, and screeched in chorus. A more lively and lovely stampede I never
witnessed. It was "Beauty and the Beast," and the beast stood pulling his
best to get the cart through; but since a six-foot cart never could go
through a four foot doorway, he backed out with the negro's assistance,
and Beauty was rescued from the perilous situation.
"Golly!" exclaimed the Buckee, when himself, mule and cart were back into
the street. "I fought de ladies were scared ob dis chile, first sight; but
I never knowed de ladies to be scared ob a hansum darky like me; and when
I looked round an' see dat ar' mules coming into der mill'ner's store--O,
yah, yah, yah! I shall die--O, yah, yah, yah!--de Lor'--to only fink ob
it, a mule in a mill'ner's shop--he wants muslin--O, yah, yah! I shall
die, sure." Then, after a few more outbursts, he stopped short--for the
milliner was looking after the box--he rolled up his eyes very solemnly,
and said to the donkey,--
"Yer ought to be 'shamed ob yerself to go into dat yer store--dar, take
dat!" levelling a blow at the donkey's head with the whip. Then taking the
box into the store, he returned, gave the donkey another solemn lecture on
his impropriety, and mounted the dray and drove away.