when we please. Shop[24] has to be
tended in the afternoon principally, and I sometimes take a turn at it
till I go off at half-past three to school again. We use for shop the
little room between Mr. G.'s and the entry, selling out of the window
over a box for a counter, to the groups on the porch. It is a funny
sight and funny work for us, albeit interesting, for they have had no
clothes for a year, and buy eagerly. Mr. Philbrick has not been able
to let them have any clothing before, as there has only been enough to
give a garment to one in ten, and they have been so used to being
treated alike that their jealousy is very easily roused, and it is a
difficult matter to deal with them. For the same reason the clothes
have to be sold, the money going back to the Commission, to be used
again for their benefit. It would be very much better if only the
goods were sent, for they prefer to make their own clothes and all
know how to sew.

These people show their subserviency in the way they put Marm or Sir
into their sentences every other word and emphasize it as the one
important word, and in always agreeing to everything you say. In
school it is rather annoying to have them say, "Yes Marm, 'zackly
Marm," before it is possible for an idea to have reached their brains.

Flora, our housemaid, who is a character, has a great deal of dignity
and influence among the other negroes, and takes the greatest care of
us. She is most jealous for what she considers our interests, and
moreover is quite an interpreter, though it is hard enough to
understand her sometimes. "Learning" with these people I find means a
knowledge of medicine, and a person is valued accordingly. Flora
wanted to know how much "learning" Miss Helen[25] had had, and it was
a long time before I could make out what she meant.

H. says she never saw me look so well, so you see I thrive in spite of
fleas, which have almost flayed me alive. I understand what it means
by eels getting _used_ to being skinned.

_May 1._ Took a ride through the quarters. We stopped to see Doll and
her week-old baby. H. had quite a talk with Mily, the nurse, who told
her it did them good to see white ladies about, and hoped we were
going to stay. She seemed very much disappointed when H. told her we
should be here [at Pine Grove] only a short time longer. I think it
does them good just to have me walk through the quarters four times a
day--they always curtsey and say a word.

In the aft