The Project Gutenberg EBook of Unc' Edinburg, by Thomas Nelson Page

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Title: Unc' Edinburg
A Plantation Echo

Author: Thomas Nelson Page

Illustrator: B. West Clinedinst

Release Date: October 1, 2010 [EBook #34016]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNC' EDINBURG ***

Produced by Al Haines

[Illustration: Cover art]

[Frontispiece: "_I seen he eye light on her as she came down the steps
smilin'._"]

UNC' EDINBURG

A PLANTATION ECHO

BY THOMAS NELSON PAGE

ILLUSTRATED BY B. WEST CLINEDINST

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

NEW YORK, 1897

Copyright, 1889, 1895, by

Charles Scribner's Sons

TROW DIRECTORY

PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY

NEW YORK

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

"_I seen he eye light on her as she came down the steps smilin'._" . .
. . . . Frontispiece.

"_I got de ker'idge heah for you._"

"_We come 'way next mornin'._"

"_Mars George lead her out on de porch._"

"_Hit begin so low evybody had to stop talkin'._"

"_Miss Charlotte she 'mos' 'stracted._"

"_An' Marse George he ain' answer._"

[Illustration: "_I got de ker'idge heah for you._"]

"Well, suh, dat's a fac--dat's what Marse George al'ays said. 'Tis
hard to spile Christmas anyways."

The speaker was "Unc' Edinburg," the driver from Werrowcoke, where I
was going to spend Christmas; the time was Christmas Eve, and the place
the muddiest road in eastern Virginia--a measure which, I feel sure,
will, to those who have any experience, establish its claim to
distinction.

A half-hour before he had met me at the station, the queerest-looking,
raggedest old darkey conceivable, brandishing a cedar-staffed whip of
enormous proportions in one hand, and clutching in the other a calico
letter-bag with a twisted string; and with the exception of a brief
interval of temporary suspicion on his part, due to the unfortunate
fact that my luggage consisted of only a hand-satchel instead of a
trunk, we had been steadily progressing in mutual esteem.

"Dee's a boy standin' by my mules; I got de ker'idge heah for you," had
been his first remark on m