satins this Christmas, no balls, no concerts, no marriages. We
are generally economizing for whatever may happen.'

'Why, I thought you didn't expect war?' I answered.

'No more we do; but it's well to be prepared.'

'There's to be no race ball, I understand,' said the lazy gentleman, who
had appeared later than the rest of us, and was having a couple of eggs
'opened' for him into a tumbler, by Pompey. 'The girls will miss that.
Can you tell me how the betting stood between _Albine_ and _Planet_?'

I could not, and observed that the Colonel changed the subject with some
marks of irritation. I learned afterward that his indolent relative had
an incurable passion for betting, and, when carried away by it, was
capable of giving unauthorized notes upon his opulent relative, who paid
them in honor of the family name, but objected to the practice. He
himself affected to discourage betting, though his State pride actually
induced him to risk money on the 'little mare' _Albine_, a
South-Carolina horse, who subsequently and very unexpectedly triumphed
over her Virginian opponent. But this by the way.

Breakfast over and cigars lighted (the Colonel imported his own from
Havana, each one enwrapped in a separate leaf, and especially excellent
in quality), we strolled abroad. The negroes were not at work, of
course; and, early as it was, we found their quarters all alive with
merriment and expectation. Some of the younger men, dressed in their
best clothes--generally suits of plain, substantial homespun, white or
check shirts, and felt hats--went from house to house, wishing the
inmates the compliments of the season, blended with obstreperous,
broad-mouthed laughter; in some instances carrying nosegays, received,
in common with the givers, with immense delight and coquetry on the part
of the females. These wore neatly-made, clean cotton dresses, with
gaily-colored handkerchiefs arranged turban fashion upon their heads.
Many of the old men and not a few of the old women were smoking clay or
corncob pipes; the children laughed, cried, played with each other,
rolled upon the ground, and disported themselves as children, white,
black, or particolored, do all the world over; the occasional twang of a
banjo and a fiddle was heard, and everything looked like enjoyment and
anticipation. Of course, the huts of the future brides constituted the
centre of attraction: from the chattering of tongues within we inferred
that the wedding dresse