Christmas, I charged her to take advantage
of the fine weather to give the passage floors a thorough scrubbing;
they were bare and showed every footprint of black mud from the
outside. When it came time to return, in spite of our pleasant
Christmas week, we were glad to think of our own home and were rather
dismayed when the morning fixed for our departure broke dark and very
cold, with little spits of snow beginning to fall. I was much afraid
that we should be compelled to yield to the hospitable objections to
our going, but at last we succeeded in getting off. We crossed at
Pollock's (your great-grandfather's ferry), so that should the storm
increase we need not leave our comfortable carriage until we should be
at home. It was a lonely drive; the snow fell steadily but so gently
that I enjoyed seeing the earth and the trees, the fences and the few
lonely houses that we passed all draped in white; though we were
warmly wrapped, the anticipation of the crackling fires in our great
old fireplaces was delightful. When we got home, the first sound that
greeted our ears, as we stepped upon the piazza, was a mournful,
long-drawn hymn. Shivering and damp from our walk up the yard, we
opened the door, to see Minerva, with kilted skirts, standing in an
expanse of frozen slush and singing at the top of her voice, while she
sluiced fresh deluges of water from her shuck brush. I was too
disgusted for words, but resolved that this should not occur again. As
soon as I could communicate with the outside world I had the hall
floors covered with oilcloth (then the fashionable covering). Also,
Minerva was displaced, and Phyllis reigned in her stead, but Minerva,
nevertheless, always indulged in the belief that she was indispensable
to our happiness and comfort.

In honor of my advent as mistress, the floors had been freshly
carpeted with very pretty bright carpets, which were in danger of
being utterly ruined by the muddy shoes of the raw plantation
servants, recently brought in to be trained for the house. Although
the soil generally was a soft, sandy loam, I observed in my horseback
rides numbers of round stones scattered about in the fields. They were
curious stones, and looked perfectly accidental and quite out of
place. Their presence excited my interest, and aroused my curiosity
as to their origin, which has never been gratified. They seemed so out
of place in those flat fields! However, I determined to utilize them
and had a num