BLACKBERRYING.
At six the next morning we both got up (that is, my mother and I), and
began dressing ourselves. "Stop, Josephine," said she, "don't put on
that dress, as you are not going out into the garden this morning."
"Why not," said I, but I began to take off my dress. "Because," said
my mother, "Geraldine Norton has invited me to a blackberrying, and
you are to go." "Oh mother, I am so glad that I don't know what to
do with myself; but what dress am I to wear?" "Oh, wear your purple
calico." In half an hour we were dressed, had our breakfast eaten, and
were ready to go. I was so impatient to be off, that I thought that
we should never go. Pretty soon Celeste (my mother) said she saw them
coming; and sure enough there they were, a whole troop of boys and
girls, with their pails and baskets. Celeste took me up in her arms
and ran with me down the carriage-way, not without having brought her
pail and mine. We next called for a dozen more girls and boys at their
houses. At eight o'clock we had got about a couple of miles from the
place. Antoinette Leland suddenly screamed out, "Here he comes, here
he comes!" "What comes?" cried they all. "The bull, the bull," said
Antoinette, and sure enough there was a monstrous large bull coming in
double quick time right behind them. Such a scampering! Pell-mell went
the whole troop to escape the pursuer. At last we saw a little cave not
very far off, and all made a rush for that, when my mother screamed
out to George Glover, "Throw off that red scarf, George, or else the
bull will gore you to death. Look, see how he foams and how madly
he paws the ground!" The scarf was off in an instant, and the bull
rushing upon it, began tearing it into a thousand pieces. When he was
doing this, we had time to get out of his sight before he made another
attempt to attack us. We soon got to the berrying place, and then we
began to pick and talk in earnest. The theme of the conversation was
about the bull, and how nicely they got away from him. George Glover
made a wreath of leaves and presented it to Celeste, telling her that
she was his guardian angel. Celeste gave him a box on the ear, but they
both laughed heartily. In a few moments they heard screams, and beheld
one of the girls rolling down the hill, and all her berries spilt.
One of the boys, however, stopped her, and all joined in filling her
basket again. At noon we all had dinner, (each of the party bringing
something,) under a group of trees. The dinner was an excellent one.
We brought clear cool water from the spring, and squeezed berries into
it; we had meats and every thing that we could want to make a gipsy
dinner. One of the boys, Charles Hammond, to improve the repast, took a
jews-harp out of his pocket, and played several tunes, beginning with
"God save the Queen," and ending with an air from "Linda di Chamounix."
His performance was loudly cheered. Bella Barker, one of the gayest of
the girls, then got up and made a speech, which was also clapped and
cheered. The dinner was then finished, and we went to pick some more
berries to make up for the ones we had eaten. On our way home, my
mother and all the rest stopped to pick wild flowers, when Lorgnette
Edwards ran forward to gather a little blue and white flower which
was a little before her. Suddenly she began to scream, and running
to the place where she stood, we found ourselves in no very pleasant
situation, as we had got upon a marshy place, and were over our shoes
in mud and water. We all began scrambling out as fast as we could, and
turned our faces the other way. We went to a little spring that we saw,
and taking off our shoes and stockings, gave them a washing out, for
we said that we preferred to have wet stockings and shoes on our feet
to muddy ones. After going a little way we saw a wild cherry tree,
up which the boys soon scrambled, and threw down the fruit into our
aprons. We got home about six o'clock, having been gone eleven hours.
I felt very tired, and was glad to have my supper, and get into bed.