two hundred acres of cotton-land upon this plantation, having spread
on it sixteen hundred ox-cart-loads of manure, and worked up every
inch of the ground with their hoes. They have also planted one hundred
and thirty acres of corn, and have begun ploughing to-day, banking up
into ridges with the ploughs the cotton-land into which the manure had
been first hoed. The ploughs run over twenty acres per day on this
place. They were made at Groton, Mass., and astonish the negroes by
their efficiency.

As a sample of the change of feeling in regard to working on cotton, I
will relate how I got the cotton ginned on this and the various other
plantations in this neighborhood. I walked through the negro quarters
one day in December and told the people I would pay them three cents
per pound of clean cotton if they would gin, assort, clean, and pack
their cotton ready for market. They said in reply their gins were all
broken up. I told them that was their own fault, and that, if they
wanted other people to gin their cotton and get their seed away from
the place, they would do so, and so get all the money and leave them
no good seed to plant. "Dat' so, Massa," said they, and I passed
along. The next time I came they had hunted up the broken pieces of
twenty-five gins, and patched them up, and had ginned and packed all
their cotton, in two weeks, wanting to know what I would have them do
next, for they did not want to lie still and do nothing.

So you see there is some satisfaction in being among these people,
although they are not exactly companions for us.

FROM H. W.

_March 23._ C. came home to-night, having resigned his position under
the Government.

H. W.'s next letter, after describing a drive towards Land's
End, narrates the events of her return trip as follows.

_March 25._ I opened the first gate myself, then met a man coming from
his work, who took off his hat with rather a surprised look at seeing
a lady alone, and an "Evening, Missus, how far you come from?" "From
Coffin's Point, and am going back again--Mr. Charlie's sister."
Whereupon another bow and a pleased grin as I go on. Soon I met
another man coming out into the road with a piece of paper, which he
asked me to read to him. I took the precaution to ask him his name
before opening it, to be sure he had not another man's pass, and then
read him an autograph pass from General Hunter for him to go to St.
Helena and back to Hilton Head, to see his