_Dec. 16._ Had the children sent for to school. They brought eggs, and
were pleased enough to begin school again.
_Dec. 18._ Told the children yesterday that I wanted them to bring me
some corn "shucks," as they call them, which are all left on the
stalks in the fields. Mr. Philbrick thought I could get enough to
stuff a bed with. I thought so too when the children all appeared with
sheets and bags full on their heads, some containing two or three
bushels!
_Dec. 20._ C. managed to get the piano downstairs this morning before
he went off. I went with him in the double sulky as far as the
cotton-house and then made an expedition to the quarters, where I
shook hands with every man and woman to be seen, inspected every new
baby (there have been a dozen born since I went away), visited Bacchus
in his school, was kindly greeted, though the people hardly knew me
and I don't know their names at all, was told that I looked "more
hearty" than when I went away, and returned with two dozen eggs and
the morning school at my heels.
Two dozen eggs at fifty cents a dozen was no mean proof of
affection!
_Dec. 21._ We started for church. C. rode his largest horse and
preceded or followed me in the double sulky, an unpainted box with a
seat in it, of Mr. Philbrick's manufacture and quite "tasty" for these
parts, on a single pair of wheels; and though it is on springs the
exercise is not slight which one gets in driving over these sandy,
uneven roads.