came to pass that almost
immediately they were fast friends. Now, as they strolled along in the
starlight, under the great spreading pines which stood as sentinels
here and there along their path, Tidy drank in eagerly all her companion
said, and in a little while had gathered all the interesting points of
information concerning the place and the people. Frances told her how
hard and mean the master and mistress were, and how poorly the slaves
fared down at the quarters. Up at the house they made out very well, she
said; but not half so well as she and her mother did when they lived out
east on Mr. Blackstone's plantation. Then she described the busy summer
season, when hundreds of people came there to board and drink the water
of the springs. Mr. Lee had built two long rows of little brick houses,
she said, down by the springs, where the people lived while they were
here, and there was a great dining cabin with long tables and seats,
and a barbecue hall, where they had barbecues, and then danced all night
long, and had gay times. And there was plenty of money going at such
times, for the people had quantities of money and gave it to the slaves.

The negro quarters consisted of six log cabins, which had once been
whitewashed, but now were extremely wretched in appearance, both without
and within. It is customary on the plantations of the South to have the
houses of the negroes a little removed, perhaps a quarter of a mile,
from the family mansion. Thus, with the exception of the house servants,
who must be within call, the slave portion of the family live by
themselves, and generally in a most uncivilized and miserable way. In
some cases their houses are quite neatly built and kept; but it was not
so on Mr. Lee's estate.

In front of these old huts was a spring, the water bubbling up and
running through a dilapidated, moss-covered spout, into a tub half sunk
in the earth, which in the daytime served as a drinking trough for the
animals, and a bathing-pool for the babies. Brushwood and logs were
lying around in all directions, and here and there a fire was burning,
at which the negroes were cooking their supper. Dogs and a few stray
babies were roaming about, seeming lonely for want of the pigs and
chickens which kept company with them all day, but had now gone to rest.
Boys and girls of larger growth were rollicking and careering over the
place, dancing and singing and entertaining themselves and the whole
settlement w