ber collected and brought into the yard, and with them I
had a pretty paved walk made from the house to the kitchen.

Our house stood upon what was known as the "Second Land," which meant
a slight rise above the wide, low grounds, which were formerly, I
believe, the bed of the sluggish stream now known as the Roanoke. All
along the edge of these Second Lands, just where they joined the low
grounds, there was a bed of beautiful small gravel. I was delighted
when I discovered this and at once interested myself in having a
gravel walk made up to the front of the house, and this was, when
completed, all that I had hoped, and served as a perfect protection
against the offending mud.

There was one evil, though, which I could not guard against, and this
was the clumsy though well-meaning stupidity of a plantation negro.
One afternoon the house became offensive with the odor of burning
wool. I followed up the scent and, after opening several doors, I
finally traced it to the dining-room. It was filled with smoke, and
there, in front of an enormous fire, squatted Abby. In a fit of most
unaccountable industry she had undertaken to clean the brass andirons,
and had drawn them red hot from the fire and placed them upon the
carpet. Of course, four great holes were the result and, as the
carpets had been made in New York, there were no pieces with which the
holes could be mended. As I had already decided her to be too stupid
to be worth the trouble of training, I felt no desire to find fault
with her, so I merely told her to put them back, or rather stood by to
see it done. I did not keep her in the house after that, but do not
suppose that she ever at all realized the mischief that she had done.

One of my amusements was to watch the birds; they were so numerous,
and appeared to be so tame. I set traps for them. This was childish,
but I was very young and often rather at a loss to find something to
do; so I used to take with me my small house boy, "Minor," whom I was
training to be a grand butler; he would carry the trap and, after it
had been set and baited, I would make him guide me to the trees where
the sweetest persimmons grew; there I would while away the morning and
on the next we would find one or more birds fluttering in the trap,
which, to Minor's silent disgust, I would set free.

The squirrels, too, were a pleasure to me in my horseback rides toward
Vine Ridge, especially. Your grandfather and I would pause to watch