rable testimony to the contrary--we
had fancied to be peculiar to our own evil days. Almost the first entry
in this quaint little diary is to the effect that "Jim was sulky
to-night and gave short answers." A little farther on we find that
"Yesterday Jim went away without leave, and stayed all night;" which
delinquency, being accompanied by a suspicion of drunkenness, caused the
anxious dame to "send for General T---- to come and give Jim a lecture."
Lecturing, however, was not then so popular as now, and Jim appears to
have profited little by the veteran general's discourse, for on the very
next night he repeats his offence. We have reason also to fear that
Jim's honesty was not above suspicion, for we read that Betsey, an
American woman who acted as assistant housekeeper and companion, "found
in Jim's possession a red morocco pocket-book which I had given her, but
"--alas for Betsey!--"with the contents all gone."

Other entries to the effect that madam one day lost her key to the
wine-cellar, and the next day discovered the bibulous Jim in the said
cellar "sucking brandy through a straw inserted in the bunghole of the
cask," and that, "furthermore, Jim had confessed to having stolen and
sold a coffee-basin for rum," do not tend to raise in our estimation
this pattern of an ancient darkey. This time it appears that madam did
not need to call in the aid of General T----, for she admits that she
herself "lectured Jim severely;" sarcastically adding, "he professed
penitence, but that did not hinder him from stealing another basin
to-day."

But the refractory Jim, we think, must have been the exception which
proved the rule that all servants prior to the late Celtic invasion were
models of deportment. Accordingly, we are not surprised to find that
Betsey was a handmaiden held in high estimation, and that "old Jack" was
a servant whose shortcomings were offset by his general good conduct and
affectionate heart. But we find also that there was a certain Sally, who
could be tolerated only because of her great culinary skill; and an
uncertain Silvy, who appears to have been in mind, if not in fact, the
twin-sister of Jim, with a spice of Topsy thrown in.

The trouble in those days was not the prospect of suddenly losing cook
or nursemaid, but that there was no getting rid of either. The fact of
slavery was, under the act of 1793, slowly fading away from Connecticut,
but all its habits remained in full force. "I wish I could