The planter gave us a fine luncheon of fried chicken and corn pone, and cider, and pa acted as the boss of the circus folks, while the planter and his family, with about 100 negroes, passed things around.  They all seemed to be interested in seeing how much stuff the giant and the fat lady could hold without putting up sideboards to keep the food from falling off.  If pa hadn’t told the negroes not to feed the fat lady and the giant any more, there would have been two circus funerals next day.

I got acquainted with a boy that was the planter’s son, and while the rest were eating and drinking the boy showed me a pack of hounds that are kept for trailing criminals and negroes who have looked sassy at white women.  The trouble with negroes is that they all look alike, and if one commits a crime they can prove an alibi, ’cause every last negro will swear that at the time the crime was committed the suspected man was attending a prayer meeting, so they have to have hounds that can be taken to the place where the crime was committed, and they find the negro’s track, and they follow it till they tree him.  The hounds do not bite the negro, like we used to hear about, but they just follow him till he is treed, and then they bark, as much as to say:  “Ah, there, Mr. Nigger, you just stay where you are till the sheriff comes to fetch you,” and Mr. Negro just turns pale and stays on a limb till the sheriff comes with his lynching tools.  When the sheriff pulls a gun the negro confesses right there, and the deputy sheriff brings the rope.

I asked the boy if the hounds would trail a white man without hurting him, and he said if you put anise seed on their shoes the hounds will trail ’em all right, so we put up a job to have some fun.  The boy gave me some anise seed, and told me to put it on the shoes of anybody I wanted trailed, and after they got out in the woods he would put the hounds on the trail, and the people would have to get up trees, or have their pants chewed, but the dogs would not hurt anybody.

Well, it made me laugh to think about it.  I went to pa and told him his shoes were all covered with red Virginia dust, and I took my handkerchief and dusted them off, and made him hold up his foot like a horse that is being shod.  Then I put a handful of anise seed around the sole, and in his shoes.  He said it was mighty kind in me to do it.  Then I went to the giant, and brushed the dust off his shoes, and put two handfuls of anise seed in them, and he said I was a nice boy.  I told the fat woman about the dust on her telescope valises, and I rubbed it off, and gave her feet a dose of anise seed that ought to have paralyzed a pack of hounds.  She wanted to hug me and let me kiss her, but I said I passed, and she said she would do as much for me some time.