THE VISIT OF THE WASHERMAN. 
very gravely, ‘‘Don’t you be watching master out of 
windows, and from behind doors, I know bis way; 
he does not like it, and you may think he does not 
notice you, but he sees you well enough. If you per- 
sist in this line of conduct, you will never get any 
cash advances from him ; indeed he may tell you 
some day to go away, that he is getting another serv- 
ant ! I never watch master. What do 1 care what 
he does? I think he does not want me to see any- 
thing, I make a great noise , and say I am away down 
to the store to get some rice and coffee, and master 
pi ase see that the dog does not burst open the kitchen 
doeor, and eat all the rice, but the truth is, there 
is no rice to eat ; I only tell this, to let master 
know I am away, and so I can always get advance 
of pay, whenever I like : indeed, just now, I am 
under two months’ advance, and intend asking for 
another month’s soon, and will get it too. You won’t 
catch me watching master, and you just take my ad- 
vice, and don’t.” Here he resumed the cutting of 
firewood, and the conversation dropped, but it did not 
drop out of the boy’s mind, who considered over it 
a good deal, and was convinced that the kitchen 
coolie was right. Notwithstanding this conviction, 
so deeply rooted in his nature was the confirmed 
habit of watching master, that the determination he re- 
solved upon was, to w^atch master more than ever, but 
to do it as slyly and conceal it as much as possible, so 
that while watching him more closely than ever, he 
would cleverly conceal it, and master would never 
know he took the least notice of any of his actions. 
In the bedroom stood a couch, upon which master 
often lay down for a short time during the day, when 
he came in very tired. This couch stood against the 
wall just exactly opposite the door. The boy was 
very often puzzled to find out, when his master was 
not in the sitting-room, or front verandah, whether 
he had gone out to work, so he set to work making 
experiments, and, by just moving the couch a very 
little, set it in such a position, that, by applying 
his eye to the keyhole of the door, he could at once see if 
master was lying down upon it. It used to be a very 
common custom, and probably still is, for the planter, 
when he came in from work, to take off his shoes in 
the verandah, and insert his feet into nice cool easy 
slippers, in which he lounged about the house. Before 
again going out, of course, he slipped his feet out of the 
slippers, and into the shoes, so that either one or other 
of the pairs was always in a convenient position, just 
under the post. It can thus be readily understood 
that the boy by merely peeping round the end of the 
jfide verandah could at once perceive whether master 
