slikes to come near her. She'll have to put up with him to-day.
There isn't a better boatman on the place anyhow."

To Landless he said, "Bring the Bluebird up to the wharf, and see that
she is sweet and clean inside. Mistress Patricia starts for Rosemead in
half an hour, and you and Regulus are to take her. You'll bring the
boat back to-night. Step lively now!"

Landless brought the Bluebird, a sixteen-foot open boat, up to the
wharf, made the inside, and especially the seat in the stern, spotlessly
clean, put up the sail, and sat down to wait. Presently Regulus appeared
above him, and swung himself down into the boat with a grin of delight,
for he much preferred sailing with "'lil missy" to cutting tobacco. He
had a great burly form and a broad, ebony face, and he was the devoted
slave of Patricia, and of Patricia's maid, Darkeih. Moreover, he enjoyed
the distinction of being the first negro born in the Colony, his parents
having been landed from the Dutch privateer which in 1619 introduced the
slave into Virginia. Viewed through a vista of nigh three hundred years,
he appears a portent, a tremendous omen, a sign from the Eumenides. Upon
that tranquil summer afternoon in the Virginia of long ago he was simply
a good-humored, docile, happy-go-lucky, harmless animal.

"'Lil Missy's comin'," he remarked, with bonhommie, to his fellow
boatman.

Darkeih, laden with cushions, appeared at the edge of the wharf.
Landless, standing in the bow below her, relieved her of her burdens,
and taking her by the hands, swung her down into the boat. She thanked
him with a smile that showed every tooth in her comely brown
countenance, and tripped aft, where, with the assistance of Regulus, she
proceeded to arrange a cushioned seat for her mistress.

Landless waited for the lady of the manor to come forward. In the act of
extending her hands to the boatman, she glanced at him, crimsoned, and
drew back. Landless, interpreting color and action aright, buckled his
armor of studied quiet more closely over a hurt and angry heart.

"I was ordered to attend you, madam," he said proudly. "But if you so
desire, I will find the overseer and tell him that you wish for some one
else in my place."

"There is not time," was the cold reply. "And as well you as any other.
Let us be going."

Landless held out his arms again. She measured with her eyes the
distance between her and the boat. "I do not need any help," she said.
"If you will stand as