ld man. "But I hold that if
the negro, or anyone else, for that matter, is to be a servant, let him
be a servant. I don't want a man to plow for me simply because he can
read. Confound him, I don't care whether he can read or not. I want him
to plow. When I choose my friends it is another matter. Your father go
to church to-day, Alf?"

"I don't know, sir," Alf answered, moving about in his chair, and then
in his embarrassment he got up and stammeringly begged the girl to sit
down.

"Why, what's all this trouble and nonsense about," the General asked,
looking first at the girl and then at Alf. "'Od zounds, there oughtn't
to be any trouble about a chair. Fifty of them back in there."

Alf dropped back and the girl laughed with such genuine heartiness that
I thought much better of her, but still I did not think that she was at
all to be compared with Guinea. The General yelled for Henry to bring
him another coal, and when his pipe had been relighted he turned to me
and said: "You don't find the old North State as she once was, sir. Ah,
Lord, the ruin that has gone on in this world since I can remember. And
yet they say we are becoming more civilized. Zounds, sir, do you call it
civilization to see hundreds of fields turned out to persimmon bushes
and broom sedge? Look over there," he added, waving his hand. "I have
seen the time when that was almost a garden. What do you want?" The last
remark was addressed to the negro boy who had suddenly appeared.
"Dinner? Yes, yes. Come, Mr. Hawes, and you, Alf. This way. Get out!" A
dog had come between him and the door. "Devilish dogs are about to take
the place, but they are no account, not one of them. Lie around here and
let the rabbits eat up the pea vines. Even the dogs have degenerated
along with everything else."

I walked with the General, and, looking back, I was pleased to see that
Alf had summoned courage enough to follow along beside the girl. We were
shown into a long dining-room, with a great height of ceiling. The house
had been built in a proud old day, and all about me I noted a dim and
faded elegance. The General bade us sit down, and I noticed that his
tone was softened. He mumbled a blessing over a great hunk of mutton
and, broadly smiling upon me, told me that he was glad to welcome me to
his board. "The school-teacher," said he, "modifies and refines our
native crudeness. Yes, sir, you have a great work, a work that you may
be proud of. Had education more br