tness.

The overseer gave it up. "I reckon he would, missy," he said with a
grin. "You wind him and all of us around your finger."

"'Tis all for your good, Woodson," with a soft, bright laugh. Then,
coaxingly, "Am I to have the Bluebird?"

"I reckon so, Mistress Patricia, seeing that you have set your heart
upon it," said the still reluctant overseer.

"That's a good Woodson. I want Regulus to be one of the boatmen. You can
send any other you choose. I shall take Darkeih with me."

"You can't have Regulus, Mistress Patricia," answered the overseer
positively. "He's worth any two men in the field. I can't let him go."

"Let him be at the wharf in half an hour. I will be ready by then."

"You can't have him, Missy."

Patricia stamped her pretty foot. "Am I mistress of this plantation, or
am I not, Woodson?"

"Lord knows you are!" groaned the overseer.

"Then when I say I want Regulus, I will have Regulus and no other."

The overseer sighed resignedly. "Very well, Mistress Patricia, I'll send
for him."

Patricia danced away, and the overseer strode down the path, viciously
crunching the pebbles and bits of shell beneath his feet. At the wharf
he found a detachment of the infant population of the quarters busily
crabbing; all of whom, save two little Indians who fished stoically on,
scrambled to their feet, and pulled a forelock. The overseer touched one
urchin upon the shoulder with the butt end of his whip.

"You, Piccaninny, run as fast as your legs will carry you to the field
by the swamp, and tell Regulus to leave his work, and come to the big
wharf. Mistress Patricia wants to go a pleasuring."

Piccaninny's black shanks and pink heels flew up and out, and he was
away like a flash. The overseer kept on to the end of the wharf, where
were clustered the boats, some tied to the piles, some anchored a little
way out. "Haines was to send a man to caulk a seam in the Nancy," he
muttered. "Whoever he is, he'll have to go in the Bluebird. I'm not
going to take another man from the tobacco. What fools women are! But
they get their way,--the pretty ones at least." He leaned over the
railing, and called,--

"You there, in the Nancy!"

Godfrey Landless looked up from his work. "What is it?"

The overseer chuckled grimly. "It's that fellow Landless who angered her
once before," he said to himself with a malicious grin. "Well, 't isn't
my business to know which of all the servants on this plantation she
most di