Browse:Huckleberry Bush (Volume 1, entries 361)
Huckleberry Bush
Volume 1, entries 361. Source context: SPIRITS → SELL SELF TO THE DEVIL. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 361
They say you kin go to the huckleberry bush - the devil's huckleberry bush - ever' Sunday morning fer nine Sunday morning, an' on the ninth Sunday morning, why, when he goes theah, he stays theah a while an' he cuts up [clowns] an' waits an' sings songs, an' aftah while the devil meets 'im. He hears a great ruslin' [rustling] in de leaves an' things, then the devil comes up. [A great ruslin' in de leaves shows the devil arriving in a whirlwind - see Nos. 167-183, and No. 355.] The devil comes up - him an' de devil has a talk - an' dey talk togethah, stayed theah an' talked togethah a while. Then aftah dat he sells hisself to the devil. Then the devil tells 'im he kin do jis' whut he please - nothin' won't hurt him, he would not have to work hard, an' de likes of that. Then he goes back [home]. An' den when he goes to work, why some ole man hires 'im - some white man hires 'im to work fer 'im. One day he wus settin' in the woods, cuttin' wood, haulin' logs, an' one thing anothah. Well, he goes in the woods an' goes to work. An' he works theah an' goes up that night an' he tells his master how much wood he had cut or how many logs he had mauled [split with a maul and wedge into cordwood]. Well, he didn't believe he had done all that work, so he makes up his mind that he would watch. So one day when he went out to work, why the man that bossed, he kin'a watched at 'im. So, aftah he went to work, why he went out theah an' hid himself. An'. he heard the axes a-goin', cuttin', an' chips a-flyin', an' de logs an' wood a-bustin'. He watched an' he start to creppin' [creeping] through the woods an' got a little closer to 'im. Seein' 'im, he wus settin' upon a stump whettin' his axe, whistlin', singin' - he had some little things theah playin' with. Well, them boys wus workin'! He had a crowd of 'em theah workin'! The logs wus a- flyin', they's pilin' up wood an' cordin' wood. It scared the ole man. He couldn't see nobody with 'im until he got right theah. He could see all these here little boys theah a-workin'. When he got there all these scattered. He went back - went back in the house. An' aftah while he come up, he tole 'im whut he had done. So this ole white man he got scared of 'im. So he discharged 'im. [FeW present-day readers can appreciate the activity here, the cording of wood. I have never cut a cord of wood but I have watched axmen cut and cord, and I have carried many cords cut up into the usual three sticks. Those devil's imps began work by driving down into the ground two solid stakes about two feet six inches apart and four feet high; then, eight feet away and parallel, two similar stakes were driven down, thus:--------: Wood was then cut into four- foot lengths - smaller logs round, large ones split - and stacked between these four stakes, so that the stack or pile filled this 132 cubic feet space; 128 being wood, the other 4 air space.]