128 



in five minutes after they and the rest of the ser- 

 vants were all chattering, laughing, and singing 

 together, in the most perfect harmony and good- 

 humour. I suppose, if I had desired an upper 

 servant in England to make the same submission, 

 he would have preferred quitting my service to 

 doing what he would have called " humbling him- 

 self to an inferior ; " or, if he had found himself 

 compelled to give way, he would have been sulky 

 with the girl, and found fault with every thing that 

 she did in the house for a twelvemonth after. 



On the other hand, there are some choice un- 

 grateful scoundrels among the negroes : on the night 

 of their first dance, a couple of sheep disappeared 

 from the pen, although they could not have been 

 taken from want of food, as on that very morning 

 there had been an ample distribution of fresh beef 5 

 and last night another sheep and a quantity of 

 poultry followed them. Yesterday, too, a young 

 rascal of a boy called " massa Jackey," who is in 

 the frequent habit of running away for months at 

 a time, and whom I had distinguished from the 

 cleverness of his countenance and buffoonery of his 

 manners, came to beg my permission to go and 

 purchase food with some money which I had just 

 given him, " because he was almost starving ; his 

 parents were dead, he had no provision-grounds, no 

 allowance, and nobody ever gave him anything." 

 Upon this I sent Cubina with the boy to the store- 

 keeper, when it appeared that he had always re- 



