s of
corn-flour--the best of their kind--concentrated coffee, chocolate, or
tea, army bread--when we can get it--crackers, when we can't, and
boiled eggs or fried fish, as the case may be. The important
operations of dish-washing and arranging the rooms upstairs take
longer than you can imagine, and things are not always done when I go
to school at ten, which with our simple style of living is rather a
nuisance. H. begins to pity the Southern housekeepers. This morning,
after making the starch in our little kitchen in the house, she waited
about for two hours, before she could get hold of one of the three
servants. They were all off at the kitchen, smoking and talking and
taking things easy. Joe was nominally cleaning knives, Flora had gone
to empty a pail of water, and Sukey had no thought about her starched
clothes!

Well, I walk off to school, under the white umbrella if the sun
shines, dressed as warmly as I can if it does not. My way lies between
a row of large "Heshaberry" trees, as the negroes call them; a
corruption, I suppose, of Asia Berry, as it is the "Pride of Asia," in
full blossom now, with scent something like our lilac, but more
delicate. On each side of these trees are the corn-houses, stables,
cotton-houses, and near the house a few cabins for house-servants, and
the well. They stretch an eighth of a mile, when a gate (left open)
shuts off the nigger-house and field. Another eighth brings me to the
cabins, which have trees scattered among them, figs and others. The
children begin to gather round me before I get there, with their bow
and curtsey and "goo' mornin, Marm," and as I go through the quarters
I send them in to wash their hands and faces. The praise-house
reached, one of the children rings the bell out of the door to summon
all, and they gather quickly, some to be sent off to wash their
faces--alas, they cannot change their clothes, which are of the
raggedest. But now enough clothes have come to begin to sell, I hope
to have a better dressed set before long. I keep them in for about two
hours--there are about thirty of the little ones who come in the
morning, ten and under; all older are in the field, and come in the
afternoon, as they finish work by noon always.

I go back to lunch at half-past twelve, a cold one generally,
sometimes a few waffles or some hominy for variety, but crackers,
sardines, and blackberries which we have in abundance now, make a
refreshing meal, with tea or coffee