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soul, who had purchased her freedom from my 

 father by substituting in her place a fine stout 

 black wench, who, being Venus's locum tenens, was, 

 by courtesy, called Venus, too, though her right 

 name was " Big Joan but, by some neglect of 

 the then attorney, Venus had never received any 

 title, and she now came to beg " massa so good as 

 give paper ; " otherwise she was still, to all intents 

 and purposes, my slave, and I might still have 

 compelled her to work, although, at the same 

 time, her substitute was on the estate. Of course, 

 I promised the paper required, and engaged to act 

 the part of a second Vulcan by releasing Venus 

 from my chains : but the paper was not the only 

 thing that Venus wanted ; she also wanted a petti- 

 coat ! She told me, that when the presents were 

 distributed on Sunday, the petticoat, which she 

 would otherwise have had, was, of course, " given 

 to the other Venus ; " and though, to be sure, she 

 was free now, yet, " when she belonged to massa, 

 she had always worked for him well," and " she 

 was quite as glad to see massa as the other Venus," 

 and, therefore, " ought to have quite as much 

 petticoat." I tried to convince her, that for Venus 

 to wear a petticoat of blue durant, or, indeed, any 

 petticoat at all, would be quite un classical : the 

 goddess of beauty stuck to her point, and finally 

 carried off the petticoat. 



Venus had scarcely evacuated the premises, 

 when her place was occupied by the minister of 



k 2 



