Memoir, page 3: Brownies, the Jabberwock, Mammie's flowers and the pansy bed

There was a big oak tree with a hollow at the ground — that was where the Brownies lived. I never missed a chance to try and see them — but I never saw a Brownie. Buck is the only person I know of who did. After we moved to Mt. Hope he insisted that he saw “the Flude” in the Brownies tree there.

And later on he knew that the “Jabber Wack[y] of Alice Through the Looking Glass” fame — lived in the little closet under the stair. He kept a bayonet — on the end of a pole — in the corner of the down stairs hall — & always gave several lunges with it into the dark corner by the closet — before passing by, on his way to bed.

Mammie always had to have some flowers around her — there were roses — flowering almond and German Iris — peony — in the Rock Spring garden. The flags came from the Mulberry garden — and the ones I had in Sav. were some from Rock Spring — I was born loving flowers — just as Mammie was — & the last time Dad ever whipped me was at Rock Spring & flowers were to blame — I stripped Mammie’s pansy bed! Dad whipped me & as he stood me up I had a terrific nose bleed. It frightened him so that he never whipped me again. But I got my share. I was the