st extraordinary, how that fellow can keep ahead of us, you know."

Several months had elapsed, and the Major had called on Mr. Low, had
shouted at the yard-gate, had supposed that no one was at home, had
stalked into the wide open house and there had found the Englishman
sitting in his bathtub, reading Huxley. And to-day Mr. Low had come to
acknowledge the receipt of that visit.

"You are on the verge of your busy season," said the priest.

"Yes," the Major replied, "we begin picking to-morrow."

"A beautiful view across the whitening fields," said the priest.

"You ought to see my bayou field," old Gid spoke up. "It would make you
open your eyes--best in the state. Don't you think so, John?"

"Well," the Major answered, "it is as good as any, I suppose."

"I tell you it's the best," Gid insisted. "And as a man of varied
experience I ought to know what best is. Know all about cotton. I gad, I
can look at a boll and make it open."

"Tell me," said the Englishman, "have you had any trouble with your
labor?"

"With the negroes?" Gid asked. "Oh, no; they know what they've got to do
and they do it. But let a cog slip and you can have all the trouble you
want. I gad, you can't temporize with a negro. He's either your servant
or your boss."

"All the trouble you want," said the Englishman. "By Jove, I don't want
any. Your servant or your master. Quite remarkable."

"Don't know how remarkable it is, but it's a fact all the same," Gid
replied. "You've had trouble, I understand."

"Yes, quite a bit. I've had to drive them off a time or two; the rascals
laughed at me. Quite full of fun they were, I assure you. I had thought
that they were a solemn race. They are everywhere else except in
America."

"It is singular," the Major spoke up, "but it is nevertheless true that
the American negro is the only species of the African race that has a
sense of humor. There's no humor in the Spanish negro, nor in the
English negro, nor in fact in the American negro born north of the Ohio
river, but the Southern negro is as full of drollery as a black bear."

"Ah, yes, a little too full of it, I fancy," Mr. Low replied. "I
threatened them with the law, but they laughed the more and were really
worse in every respect after that."

"With the law!" old Gid snorted. "What the deuce do they care about the
law, and what sort of law do you reckon could keep a man from laughing?
You ought to threatened them with a snake bone or a rabbit