come. The leaves and
blossoms disturbed by our feet and skirts were as still as the hundreds
and thousands of other leaves on all sides of us. We had not bruised a
vine, or left a footprint, that we could see. The sun poured down upon
us like fire from heaven; we were in the middle of the patch that
seemed, to my horrified eyes, miles and miles in extent, and not another
creature was in sight.

"Our only hope is to scream as loud as ever we can," said Cousin Nancy.
"Nobody knows where we are; the hands are all in the tobacco, a mile on
the other side of the house, and Cap'n Gates and Mr. Owen may be even
farther off, for all I know. If we can't make anybody hear us, the Lord
have mercy upon our souls! We shall have sunstroke inside of an hour."

I picked up the green parasol, and with clumsy, shaking fingers opened
it, and stood on tiptoe to hold it over her head, crying, meantime, as
piteously as she, such was the contagion of hysterical terror. Then,
with one accord, we lifted up our voices, weak with weeping, in a thin
screech. I said "Help! help! help!" she cried, "Murder! murder!" and
"Cap'n _Ga-a-tes!_" We made enough noise to startle the dogs in the
house-yard and at the stables, and brought from the nearer "quarters"
and corn-field a gang of negroes, of all sizes and ages, all running at
the top of their speed, and the faster as they descried us. It would
have been excruciatingly funny at any other time, and to one that was
not an actor in the drama, to observe that not one man, woman, or
pickaninny of the excited crowd offered to pass the confines of the
melon patch. Each one was mindful of the hundreds of buried side-blades
with their edges uppermost, and almost all were bare-footed.

"Run! some of you-all, for Marster an' Mr. Owen!" shrieked Malviny,
getting her wits together before the others could rally theirs. The
shrill order arose above the chorus of groans and cries and pitying
exclamations, and Cousin Nancy, on hearing it, gave one wild cry, and
dropped where she stood, a heap of white cambric, head, arms, and green
parasol, crushing the vines, and her head just grazing a mammoth melon.

I had never been so frightened in all my life as when I got hold of her
head, and tried to lift it. It was as heavy as lead. Too much terrified
and too foolish to bethink myself that a cut would bleed, I concluded
that she had struck one of the murderous blades, and it had killed her.
Her eyes were closed; her jaw h