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CHAPTER XIII

THE CURIOUS AXE-HELVE — SYMPTOMS OF APPROACHING ILLNESS — CONTINUE TO DECLINE — THE WHIP INEFFECTUAL — CONFINED TO THE CABIN — VISIT BY DR. WINES — PARTIAL RECOVERY — FAILURE AT COTTON PICKING — WHAT MAY BE HEARD ON EPPS'PLANTATION — LASHES GRADUATED — EEPS IN A WHIPPING MOOD — EPPS IN A DANCING MOOD — DESCRIPTION OF THE DANCE — LOSS OF REST NO EXCUSE — EPPS' CHARACTERISTICS — JIM BURNS REMOVAL FROM HUFF POWER TO BAYOU BOEUF — DESCRIPTION OF UNCLE ABRAM; OF WILEY; OF AUNT PHERE; OF BOB, HENRY, AND EDWARD; OF PATSEY, WITH A GENEALOGICAL ACCOUNT OF EACH — JEALOUSY AND LUST — PATSEY, THE VICTIM.

On my arrival at Master Epps', in obedience to his order, the first business upon which I entered was the making of an axe-helve. The handles in use there are simply a round, straight stick. I made a crooked one, shaped like those to which I had been accustom-ed at the North. When finished, and presented to Epps, he looked at it with astonishment, unable to determine exactly what it was. He had never before seen such a handle, and when I explained its conveni-ences, he was forcibly struck with the novelty of the idea. He kept it in the house a long time, and when his friends called, was wont to exhibit it as a curiousity.

It is now the season of hoeing. I was first seny