198 A FLORIDA SHRINE. 



everything heavenly. The younger set of 

 negroes (" my people " was his word) were 

 on the wrong road. They had " sold their 

 birthright," though exactly what he meant 

 by that remark I did not gather. " They 

 ain't got no sense," he declared, " and what 

 sense they has got don't do 'em no good." 



I told him finally that I was from the 

 North. " Oh, I knows it," he exclaimed, " I 

 knows it;" and he beamed with delight. 

 How did he know, I inquired. " Oh, I 

 knows it. I can see it in you. Anybody 

 would know it that had any jedgment at all. 

 You's a perfect gentleman, sah." He was 

 too old to be quarreled with, and I swal- 

 lowed the compliment. 



I tore myself away, or he might have run 

 on till night about his old master and mis- 

 tress, the division of the estate, an abusive 

 overseer (" he was a perfect dog, sah ! "), and 

 sundry other things. He had lived a long 

 time, and had nothing to do now but to re- 

 call the past and tell it over. So it will be 

 with us, if we live so long. May we find 

 once in a while a patient listener. 



This patriarch's unfavorable opinion as to 

 the prospects of the colored people was 



