Tidewater, Virginia, "Buffalo" steers, "Buck and Bright," and their sleepy negro driver coming from

Lewis Johnson-colored, registered by Board of Registration, Montross District, Westmoreland
County, Va., as a voter under the clause-a person who prior to the adoption of this Constitution
(1902-03) served in time of war in the army or navy of the United States, or of the Confederate
States or of any State of the United States or of the Confederate States, he having served in th
Confederate army in time of war.
Signed,
W. C. ENGLAND
President of Board of Registration of Westmoreland Co., Va., for the year

CHAPTER XIX

Lands and Products.

I. SEASONS.

There are two beautiful seasons of the year in Tidewater Virginia. First is the early spring time when the forests bud and the flowers blossom; then the air is filled with the sweet odors exhaled by nature, in her efforts to encourage verdure to wake from the cold slumbers, and to smile upon the earth and spread its green mantle over the landscape, and free the waters from their frigid chill, that they may romp and run free from the mountains to the sea shore undisturbed. This is the most welcome season of the year. It is then the busy time for the tiller of the soil, and the fisherman hastens to prepare his nets for the harvest which the warm waters will bring to them. The following is typical of the negroes' thought of Spring time.

O, Miss Spring time,

We's glad to see 'taint so,
We's fear'd dat ol' Miss Wintah
Had kiver'd yo' up wid snow;

But dar cum spry Miss April,

She done jes' dried huh eyes,
An' bresh'd away de heavy clouds
IW'at hid de shiny skies,
Den we se'ed 'long de road side
De flowers yo' use to bring,

An' we know'd it by de "Daises"
Dat yo' wuz sho'ly spring.

We he'erd ol' Mistah Bullfrog
A hoppin' to his home,
An' steddy shoutin' to hissef
"Jug-o-rum", "Jug-o-rum".

Lissen w'at dat young frog say

-He's jes' woke up from sleep

I knows he's in some trubble

-"Knee deep", "knee deep", "knee deep”—

O, Yas, it's sho'ly spring time

W'en frogs keep up sich noise,

A singin' to dar lone selves,

-A racket-jes' laik boys.

The other pretty season of the year is the late fall when the summer's heat has expended its force, and the atmosphere fills the human lungs with its healthful breaths of cool air. Then the oak leaves change their emerald hue, and lose their hold upon the parent tree, to drop at its feet and form mold to nourish the roots for future needs, while the Heavens are casting their weighty coats of glittering frosts upon the earth, as a warning to nature to prepare its slumbering couch for winter's visit. This is the second welcome season of the year. Then the industrious farmer and the lucky fisherman have already reaped their harvests and gathered them for protection against winter's icy hand, which is sure to search the lands where harvests bloomed, and the rivers where the waters romped and made merry with their finny visitors.

Winter soon makes a struggle to settle itself upon the earth, and sends its windy messengers from the North, with trumpets full of chilly air to blow upon the face of nature and thus force its eyes to close before the expected storms.

This wintry struggle is interrupted usually about the middle of November, when the weather again becomes warm, enabling the belated wayfarer to seek shelter, who, but for its aid would be "left out in the cold.”

This change in the weather, with its hazy atmosphere, is a delightful season. It was named "Indian Summer" from the following circumstances: During the first settlements of the West, the pioneers to that region were continually

harassed by the Indians. These people enjoyed no peace excepting in the severe winter weather when the Indians were unable to make their raids into the settlements. The onset of winter was therefore hailed as a relief from these annoyances by the settlers who throughout the spring and early part of the fall had been forced for their own safety to live in little uncomfortable forts. At the approach of winter, therefore, all the farmers excepting the owner of the fort, removed to their cabins on their farms. It sometimes happened, after the apparent onset of winter, that the weather became warm, the "smoky time" commenced, and lasted for a considerable number of days. This was Indian Summer, because it afforded the Indians another opportunity of visiting the settlements with their destructive warfare.

At morn, along the woodland stream,
A film of ice, brief as a dream,
Gleams in the sun,

And frost gems in the woods and grass,
Like trinkets wrought of polished glass,
Or myriad points of burnished brass
That shine as one.

A dreamy haze, half fog, half smoke,
Above the red tops of the oak
Hangs like a pall;

Incasing all the hill tops gray,

And valley stretching far away,

Where regal Indian Summer's sway
Transfigures all.

The winters are especially mild in the lower tidewater section; very seldom is ice formed upon its streams more than two or three inches thick. Snows are usually light, and last upon the earth but a few days after falling. Weather suitable for planting garden vegetables is often found in the middle of February, or the beginning of March. There is usually an