Sarah Jane
by
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Equal in interest to the Fardy-in-the-army stories were the Nature lessons.
I shall never forget the first bird’s nest I ever saw. It was in the orchard adjoining our garden. The fruit trees were in bloom and I liked to pretend
that they were ladies in lovely new dresses. I was standing gazing at them when Fardy came out from among them, calling as he came:
“Sarah Jane! Oh, Sarah Jane!”
I ran to meet him.
He took my hand and led me in among the beautiful, sweet-smelling trees. Tents of bloom spread above me beneath the deep blue sky. A light breeze was
blowing and the white and pink petals showered upon and round about me like a fairy snow storm. It was entrancing.
Beside a pear-tree lady, dressed in the purest white blossoms, we stopped. Fardy lifted me in his arms and whispered to me to look. There, in a crotch of
the tree (which I made believe was a crook of the lady’s elbow) nestled a little brown, cup-shaped thing, and lying in it what seemed to be five wee Easter
eggs—blue as the sky above and prettily speckled.
I gave a scream of delight, but Fardy checked me, warning me against frightening the mother-bird, which was already fluttering about in alarm.
My heart was filled with sweet wonder when I was told that in a short time out of each blue egg would peep a fuzzy robin-breast.
We had other pets—ducks, chickens, turkeys and guineas, and of course, “Ole Ned,” the faithful, good-tempered family horse, was loved and petted by old and
young alike. And there was “Tip”—dear, delightful little “Tip.”
It was on a bitterly cold and stormy winter’s night that Tip came to us. Supper was ready and the table set. The family was gathered in the dining-room,
where lamps and the open log-fire, burning brightly, made a comfortable contrast to the bleak night outside. Suddenly there came a shuffling sound in the
hall, followed by a knock on the door.
“Come in!” said Fardy.
The door opened and in walked Black John—a broad grin on his simple, soot-black face, his white teeth gleaming.
“Well, John, what is it?” asked Fardy.
Black John stood first on one foot and then on the other while he struggled for utterance. Finally he stammered:
“Got a p-present fur de chillun.”
“A present? Where is it, John?” (For in his hands he carried nothing but his old cap).
His smile broadened.
“Heah ‘tis!” he said.
Thrusting his hand inside his shirt he took from next his naked skin, where he had placed it to keep it warm, a tiny black-and-tan terrier. Billy and I and
Jack and Little Sister danced and screamed with delight.
“He name Tip,” said Black John.
And Tip was at once taken to heart by the whole family.
One day as Fardy and I were riding along on Ole Ned, a low rumble in the air told us a storm was brewing. Soon the sky was thick and black and peal after
peal of thunder crashed on our ears, while lightning blazed out continually, or ran in forked streaks across heaven.
I was terrified. I had never been out in a storm and I had often heard Mammy Dilcie and Patsy talk of their fear of being “struck dead by thunder and
lightning,” and say that the only really safe place in a thunderstorm was the middle of a feather bed.
But Fardy’s arm tightened about my body as he urged Ole Ned forward and his firm, comforting voice rose above the voice of the tempest in a hymn I had
never heard before:
“God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform:
He plants His footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.”
As I listened, all fear left me. The hymn changed the storm from a horrible, to a grand and beautiful thing, and the storm in my heart gave place to an
awed but hushed calm.
We reached home before the rain began and from safe shelter watched it coming down in sheets, accompanied by hail-stones that clattered against the
window-panes and bounced and rolled about the sills and on the ground below.
Ever after that I loved to watch a storm. They filled me with interest and awe but never again with fear; and always I could hear Fardy’s voice calmly
rising above it in the majestic words of the hymn.
The incident turned a thunderstorm, for me, into a religious service.
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Softcover
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Hardcover
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Book Details
Language :
English
Publication Date :
12/30/2014
Format :
Softcover
Dimensions :
6x9
Page Count :
178
ISBN :
9781490841519
Format :
Hardcover
Dimensions :
6x9
Page Count :
178
ISBN :
9781490841526
Format :
E-Book
Dimensions :
N/A
Page Count :
178
ISBN :
9781490842202
About the Book
“Ev’rybody’s poor, aren’t they, Billy?”
“All the nicest people are,” he replied.
Billy was a “war baby.” He had a message from General Lee congratulating him on being born, and was quite wise. I was only a “since-the-war” baby.
I climbed on a cricket table and looked at myself in the mahogany-framed glass hanging over Gran’munny’s dimity dressing table. I decided a girl with a
shingled head was utterly, hopelessly ugly, and I wondered why God hadn’t made me a boy. What place would there be in the world for an ugly girl?
“As a child who grew to womanhood in the years following the war of Aggression on my Southern countrymen, I think I am the one most qualified to write this
book. I have told only one woman’s experience, however, I have been well known in my time as a writer of Virginia history and its people. I cannot say I am
an authority on your heritage and neighbor’s, but I can say that I am on mine.”
—Mary Newton Stanard
About the Author
As Mary’s niece I wasn’t born until 114 years after her entrance on the world scene, in 1865. My coming-of-age on a little farm in the hills of southwest
Missouri was not unlike hers. I felt a kinship to her joys and struggles as I edited her story from the soft, old pages of her original manuscript—a little
at a time—while I changed toddler’s diapers, kept house for my father and sister, and awaited my husband’s return from his work in the North.
—Beth Carty
Sarah Jane is a fascinating account of the fallen Confederacy brought vividly to life as she learns that downfall of pride in politics, fashion,
friendship, and romance isn’t necessarily the end of her world. Overall, faith in God shines bright.
Sarah Jane is a fascinating account of the fallen Confederacy brought vividly to life as she learns that downfall of pride in politics, fashion, friendship, and romance isn’t necessarily the end of her world. Overall, faith in God shines bright.