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the only fear which he expressed was, that he 

 should not live till last Christmas, when my return 

 was expected to a certainty. In the mean while 

 he endeavoured to find out a means of being of 

 some little use to me, although his weak constitu- 

 tion would not allow of his being of much. Some 

 of his relations being in opulent circumstances, 

 they furnished him with a horse, for he was too 

 weak to walk for more than a few minutes at a 

 time ; and, mounted upon this, he passed all his 

 time in traversing the estate, watching the corn 

 that it might not be stolen, warning the pen-keepers 

 if any of the cattle had found their way into the 

 cane-pieces, and doing many other such little 

 pieces of service to the property ; so that, as the 

 negroes said, " if he had been a white man he 

 might have been taken for an overseer." At length 

 Christmas arrived; it was known that I was on the 

 sea ; Bob, too, was still alive ; but still there was 

 nothing to be heard of me. His perpetual question 

 to all who came to visit him was, How was the 

 wind ? and he was constantly praying to the wind 

 and the ocean to bring massa's vessel soon to Sa- 

 vanna la Mar, that he might but see him once 

 more, and thank him, before he died. At length 

 I landed ; and when, on the day of my arrival on 

 my estate, I expressed my surprise at the non- 

 appearance of several of the negroes, who had ap- 

 peared to be most attached to me, and I had 

 expected to find most forward in greeting me, I 



