LET WELL ALONE. 
cau easily imagine the state of the coffee,, and tho 
state of Mr. Pei?ean’s mind at finding all his plans 
and schemes so persistently bafSed. As usual, th& 
whole blame was attached to Mr. Meek. He was not 
half strict enough ; had he attended thoroughly to 
his instructions from the very first this could not hava- 
happened. Mr. Meek had got so accustomed to ba 
^-blamed for the shortcomings, that, as a matter of 
course, he bad come to the conclusion that everything, 
that was wi-nng must have been his own fault ; but 
really this latter accusation was rather too much for 
him. He made the reasonable retnark that since he 
was such a fool,^ it was clearly to Mr. Perean’s in- 
terest to get rid of him as soon as possible, and re- 
quested a settlement and his discharge. This natural 
request merely increased the wrath of his. superior. 
®‘Meek/’ says he “you were bad enough before, but 
1 never thought you possibly could be so unprincipled 
as this ! To throw up your situation just as crop 
is well on, everything behindhand^ everything to do,, 
and nothing done. Meek, you are worse than useless 
to me, all the good I try to do is. undone by your 
folly, but as I cannot countenance- a want of principle 
in such a very young man as yourself and solely and 
wholly for you own good,, although it is to be feared 
to my loss, you cannot be allov/ed to leave, until 
after crop, that is to say if yon then are still of the 
mind to go. But if we get well through this crop,, 
perhaps out of a sense of gratitude at the trouble I 
have taken in teaching you planting matteis, perhaps 
we may understand each other better.’^ The reply 
to this was, “ Very well, we will see how we get 
ou.’^ The curious result of this little conversation, 
was that the two certainly did appear to g-'t on very 
well indeed ; in fact nothing could be better, and 
it all proceeded from Mr; Perean merely letting his. 
subordinate alone, or at all events ceasing to issue 
absurd and ridiculous orders. 
How is it that in these times proprietors would never 
let their superintendents alone ? M they were doing 
right, they often would interfere and compel them to: 
do wrong ; and if they were doing wrong, they would 
stop it, and make them do worse. What man of any 
mind could stand being always nagged at and found 
fault with, do what he liked ? And so arose the dislike 
to take service on an estate where the proprietor was. 
resident, or, as it frequently happened, where the pro- 
prietor made periodical visits, and staye«l. How con- 
strained and uncomfortable the superintendent would- 
feel during his residence, and how light and free after 
his departure. Now this was not a right feeling : there 
must have been a screw loose soiaewhere to induce 
