THE PLANTATION HOUSE OF " FAR AWAY." CI 



CHAPTER V. i 



THE PLANTATION HOUSE OF " FAR AWAY.'^ 



"Ofttimes, in travelling through the west, 

 The stranger finds a Hoosher's nest. 

 In other words, a Buck-eye cabin 

 Just big enough to hold Queen Mab in." 



Jackson, the sheep-raiser, whose timely arrival had 

 driven away the phantom wolves, was a fair examj^le of 

 many a planter. He was tall in figure, samiteriug in 

 gait, wearing a black beard and moustache, and hair so 

 long as to be confined behind his ears. His hazel eyes 

 were large and expressive, flashing with excitement, or 

 quizzical with mirth, his face was sallow, his lips thin and 

 stained with tobacco, his dress loose, and extravagant 

 in color when he was where he could select it. His man- 

 ners were like his dress, and he seemed reckless of all 

 appearances as to what he said or did. He was wealthy, 

 after his kind ; that is to say, he had dogs and horses 

 Avithout number, and "men-servants and maid-servants 

 were born in his house," and he owned, by inheritance, 

 acres of land enough to have made him a duke in Rhine- 

 land ; and yet for ready money he was poor as Peter the 

 Hermit. Debts he had many, but they did not depress 



