woman, I said,

'I feel greatly obliged to you, madam, for the shelter you have given
us, and would like to make you some recompense for your trouble. Please
to tell me what I shall pay you.'

'Wal, stranger, we don't gin'rally take in lodgers, but seein' as how as
thar ar tu on ye, and ye've had a good night on it, I don't keer if ye
pay me tu dollars.'

That struck me as 'rather steep' for 'common doin's,' particularly as we
had furnished the food and 'the drinks;' yet, saying nothing, I handed
her a two-dollar bank note. She took it, and held it up curiously to the
sun, then in a moment handed it back, saying, 'I don't know nothin'
'bout that ar sort of money; hain't you got no silver?'

I fumbled in my pocket a moment, and found a quarter-eagle, which I gave
her.

'I hain't got nary a fip o' change,' she said, as she took it.

'Oh! never mind the change, madam; I shall want to stop and _look_ at
you when I return,' I replied, good-humoredly.

'Ha! ha! yer a chicken,' said the woman, at the same time giving me a
gentle poke in the ribs. Fearing she might, in the exuberance of her joy
at the sight of the money, proceed to some more decided demonstration of
affection, I hastily stepped into the wagon, bade her good-by, and was
off.

We were still among the pines, which towered gigantically all around us,
but were no longer alone. Every tree was scarified for turpentine, and
the forest was alive with negro men and women gathering the 'last
dipping,' or clearing away the stumps and underbrush preparatory to the
spring work. It was Christmas week; but, as I afterwards learned, the
Colonel's negroes were accustomed to doing 'half tasks' at that season,
being paid for their labor as if they were free. They stopped their work
as we rode by, and stared at us with a sort of stupid, half-frightened
curiosity, very much like the look of a cow when a railway train is
passing. It needed but little observation to conclude that their
_status_ was but one step above the level of the brutes.

As we rode along I said to the driver, 'Scipio, what did you think of
our lodgings?'

'Mighty pore, massa. Niggas lib better'n dat.'

'Yes,' I replied, 'but these folks despise you blacks; they seem to be
both poor and proud.'

'Yas, massa, dey'm pore 'cause dey won't work, and dey'm proud 'cause
dey'r white. Dey won't work 'cause dey see de darky slaves doin' it, and
tink it am beneaf white folks to do as de darkies do. Dis habin