"I'se got de stuff dat'll fix de rumatics, massa."

"Thank you, Jim; a glass will do me good. Where did you get it?" I
asked, thinking it strange the Colonel should leave his brandy-bottle
within reach of the negroes, who have an universal weakness for spirits.

"Oh, I keeps de keys; de Cunnel hissef hab to come to me when he want
suffin' to warm hissef."

It was the fact; Jim had exclusive charge of the wine-cellar; in short,
was butler, barber, porter, footman, and body-servant, all combined.

"Now, massa, you lay right whar you is, and I'll make you ober new in
less dan no time."

And he did; but I emptied the brandy-bottle. Lest my temperance friends
should be horror-stricken, I will mention, however, that I took the
fluid by external absorption. For all rheumatic sufferers, I would
prescribe hot brandy, in plentiful doses, a coarse towel, and an active
Southern darky, and if on the first application the patient is not
cured, the fault will not be the negro's. Out of mercy to the chivalry,
I hope our government, in saving the Union, will not annihilate the
order of body-servants. They are the only perfect institution in the
Southern country, and, so far as I have seen, about the only one worth
saving.

The dinner-bell sounded a short while after Jim had finished the
scrubbing operation, and I went to the table with an appetite I had not
felt for a week. My whole system was rejuvenated, and I am not sure that
I should, at that moment, have declined a wrestling match with Heenan
himself.

I found at dinner only the overseer and the young son of Madam P----,
the Colonel and the lady being still at the cabin of the dying boy. The
dinner, though a queer mixture of viands, would not have disgraced,
except, perhaps, in the cooking, the best of our Northern hotels.
Venison, bacon, wild fowl, hominy, poultry, corn bread, French
"made-dishes," and Southern "common doin's," with wines and brandies of
the choicest brands, were placed on the table together.

"Dis, massa," said Jim, "am de raal juice; it hab been in de cellar eber
since de house war built. Massa tole me to gib you some, wid him
complimen's."

Passing it to my companions, I drank the Colonel's health in as fine
wine as I ever tasted.

I had taken an instinctive dislike to the overseer at the
breakfast-table, and my aversion was not lessened by learning his
treatment of Sam; curiosity to know what manner of man he was, however,
led me, toward the clo