en in.
Besides some servant's duty to an officer, for which he is well paid, he
does the work of a full hand on his place. He hires one woman and two
men, one of the latter being old and only a three-quarters hand. He has
two daughters, sixteen and seventeen years of age, one of whom is
likewise only a three-quarters hand. His wife works also, of whom he
said, "She's the best hand I got"; and if Celia is only as smart with
her hoe as I know her to be with her tongue, Harry's estimate must be
right. He has a horse twenty-five years old and blind in both eyes, whom
he guides with a rope,--carrying on farming, I thought, somewhat under
difficulties. Harry lives in the house of the former overseer, and
delights, though not boastingly, in his position as a landed proprietor.
He has promised to write me, or rather dictate a letter, giving an
account of the progress of his crop. He has had much charge of
Government property, and when Captain Hooper, of General Saxton's staff,
was coming North last autumn, Harry proposed to accompany him; but at
last, of his own accord, gave up the project, saying, "It'll not do for
all two to leave together."

Another case of capacity for organization should be noted. The
Government is building twenty-one houses for the Edisto people, eighteen
feet by fourteen, with two rooms, each provided with a swinging
board-window, and the roof projecting a little as a protection from
rain. The journey-carpenters are seventeen colored men, who have fifty
cents per day without rations, working ten hours. They are under the
direction of Frank Barnwell, a freedman, who receives twenty dollars a
month. Rarely have I talked with a more intelligent contractor. It was
my great regret that I had not time to visit the village of improved
houses near the Hilton Head camp, which General Mitchell had
extemporized, and to which he gave so much of the noble enthusiasm of
his last days.

* * * * *

Next as to the _development of manhood_. This has been shown, in the
first place, in the prevalent disposition to acquire land. It did not
appear upon our first introduction to these people, and they did not
seem to understand us when we used to tell them that we wanted them to
own land. But it is now an active desire. At the recent tax-sales, six
out of forty-seven plantations sold were bought by them, comprising two
thousand five hundred and ninety-five acres, sold for twenty-one hundred
a