The Entailed Hat; Or, Patty Cannon's Times

TWO HAT WEARERS. Princess Anne, as its royal name implies, is an old seat of justice, and gentle-minded town on the Eastern Shore. The ancient county of Somerset having been divid...

JUDGE AND DAUGHTER. Judge Custis was the most important man in the county. He belonged to the oldest colonial family of distinction, the Custises of Northampton, whose fortune, be...

THE FORESTERS. One Saturday afternoon in October Meshach Milburn drew out his razor, cup, and hone, and prepared to shave, albeit his beard was never more than harmless down. By a...

DISCOVERY OF THE HEIRLOOM. Judge Custis was in his bedroom, in the second story of the large, inn-like mansion at the middle of the village, and he was just recovering from the ef...

THE BOG-ORE TRACT. Resolution of character and executive power had been trifled away by Judge Custis. The trader had concluded their interview with a decision and fierceness that ...

THE CUSTISES RUINED. Vesta Custis, dressing in her chamber, heard early wheels upon the morning air, and looking through the blinds saw a double team coming up the road from Hards...

JACK-O'-LANTERN IRON. Mrs. Custis was in no situation to give annoyance for that day, as a sick-headache seized her and she kept her room. Infirm of will, purely social in her mar...

THE HAT FINDS A RACK. Meshach Milburn had locked the store after writing some letters, and had taken the broad street for Judge Custis's gate. The news of his disappearance toward...

HA! HA! THE WOOING ON'T. It was twilight when Meshach Milburn closed his story, and silence and pallid eve drew together in the Custis sitting-room, resembling the two people ther...

MASTER IN THE KITCHEN. The kitchen had been a scene of anything but culinary peace and savor during the long visit of the owner of the hat. Aunt Hominy and the little darkeys had...

DYING PRIDE. At the termination of Milburn's long visit, Vesta had gone to her own room, and read her passage in the Bible, and said her prayer, and tried to think, but the day's ...

PRINCESS ANNE FOLKS. The Washington Tavern, or, rather, the brick sidewalk which came up to its doors, and was the lounging-place for all the grown loiterers in Princess Anne, had...

SHADOW OF THE TILE. As Vesta and her father stepped over the sill of Teackle Hall, it seemed very dear, yet somewhat dread to them, being reclaimed again, but at the penalty of a ...

MESHACH'S HOME. Vesta had slept she hardly knew how long, but it was day, and slowly her eyes turned towards the remainder of her bed to see if it was occupied. The bridegroom wa...

THE KIDNAPPER. It seemed to Judge Daniel Custis as he walked abroad into the Sunday sunshine, that he had never seen a more perfect day. The leaves were turning on the great sycam...

BELL-CROWN MAN. As the Judge and Phoebus had turned the corner of the bank Samson Hat appeared, driving down Princess Anne's broad main street a young white girl. "There's the ni...

SABBATH AND CANOE. They now approached an island with low bluffs, on which appeared a considerable village, shining whitely amid the straight brown trunks of a grove of pine-trees...

UNDER AN OLD BONNET. Vesta had been sitting half an hour beside her unconscious husband, listening to his broken speech, and thinking upon the rapidity of events once started on t...

THE DUSKY LEVELS. The new son-in-law, left alone with Judge Custis, asked to be propped up in bed, and nothing was visible that would support his pillow but the aged leather hat-b...

CASTE WITHOUT TONE. Judge Custis was well out of town, riding to the north, when the little reading-circle assembled, without his patronage, over the old store, and the young mini...

LONG SEPARATIONS. Vesta was awakened by Roxy, Virgie, and her mother all standing around her bed at once, exclaiming something unintelligible together. It was late morning, the wh...

NANTICOKE PEOPLE. A map would be out of place in a story, yet there are probably some who perceive that this is a story with a reality; and if such will take any atlas and open it...

TWIFORD'S ISLAND. Some piles of wood and an old wharf were at the river-side, and a little scow, half filled with water, and with only a broken piece of paddle in it, was the only...

OLD CHIMNEYS. The day was far advanced when Jimmy Phoebus was strong enough to rise and walk, and leave the refuge in the woods. He advised the colored woman to crawl through the ...

PATTY CANNON'S. Phoebus passed along the side of a large, black, cypress-shaded mill-pond, and found the boundary stone again, and took the angle from its northern face as a compa...

VAN DORN. A thin fur of frost was on the level farm-lands, and the saffron and orange leaves were falling almost audibly from the trees, as Levin Dennis awoke on Wednesday, in the...

CANNON'S FERRY. When it was announced to Levin and Hulda, who had meantime been talking in the garden, dangerously near the subject of love, that they were to be given a ride to C...

PACIFICATION. Princess Anne had missed for several days some conspicuous citizens, such as Daniel Custis and wife, Captain Phoebus, Levin Dennis, and the free negro Samson--large ...

BEGINNING OF THE RAID. The raid into Delaware was all organized when Levin and Hulda were driven to Johnson's tavern, and the arrival of Van Dorn called forth cheers and yells, as...

AFRICA. The Captain took his place at the reins, his picturesque velvet jacket, wide hat, bright hair, and gay shirt, thighings, belt, and boots, deserving all Patty Cannon's enco...

PEACH BLUSH. Judge Custis, whom we left riding out of Princess Anne on Sunday afternoon, kept straight north, crossed the bottom of Delaware in the early evening, and went to bed ...

GARTER-SNAKES. At Princess Anne Vesta had moved her husband to Teackle Hall, and he occupied her father's room and seemed to be growing better, though the doctor said that he had ...

HONEYMOON. Meanwhile the steamer was taking Vesta and her husband across the Chesapeake Bay in the night--that greatest, gentlest indentation in the coast of the United States; at...

THE ORDEAL. When Levin Dennis awoke in the bottom of the old wagon it was being rapidly driven, and Van Dorn's voice from the driver's seat was heard to say, without its usual lis...

COWGILL HOUSE. Long after midnight, Dover was in bed, except at one large house on the Capitol green, where light shone through the chinks and cracks of curtains and shutters, and...

TWO WHIGS. "Goy! Look at the trees, friend Custis," said John M. Clayton, standing before his office as the rising sun innocently struck the tree-tops in the public square of Dove...

SPIRITS OF THE PAST. "What do they say, William, about Jack Wonnell's being found shot dead?" "It is generally said that he was killed by the negroes for gallantries to their col...

VIRGIE'S FLIGHT. Snow Hill, when Virgie looked forth upon it, almost seemed built on snow, a white sand composing the streets, gardens, and fields, though the humid air brought ve...

VIRGIE'S FLIGHT (_continued_). "Can you walk, Hudson?" asked Virgie, when her horror would permit. "Yes, child, I can walk, I reckon; but both my eyes is burned out. Oh, my pore ...

HULDA BELEAGUERED. Owen Daw brought the news of the repulse from Cowgill House and the wounding of Captain Van Dorn. "Where is the little tacker, Levin?" asked Patty Cannon, furi...

AUNT PATTY'S LAST TRICK. Opposite McLane's room was the vestibule to the slave-pen in the garret, a room Van Dorn usually slept in. With her emotions profoundly excited, though sh...

BEAKS. The wind was blowing in spells, like crowds moved during an argument, at one time mute as awe, again murmurous, and sometimes mutinous and fierce, when Hulda, having heard ...

PLEASURE DRAINED. The dawn had not broken when that fleet traveller, Joseph Johnson, anticipating his enemies by hours, noiselessly tied his horses at the tavern he had erected, a...

THE DEATH OF PATTY CANNON. As Patty Cannon came out of the tavern the cross-roads were full of people, taking their last look at the spot where she had triumphed for nearly twenty...

THE JUDGE REMARRIED. Vesta found her circle reunited, though with many absentees, at Princess Anne. Aunt Hominy took her place in the kitchen, and cooked with all her former art,...

THE CURSE OF THE HAT. As the spring burst upon Princess Anne in cherry blossoms and dogwood flowers, in herring and shad weighting the river seines, and broods of young chickens a...

FAILURE AND RESTITUTION. The railroad struggle was renewed from year to year. The Legislature was annually beset by strong lobby forces, and an embittered contest between the Pot...