htly surprised glance at the major's
sprawling attitude, noiselessly withdrew. The major must have caught the
expression on Jefferson's face, for he dropped his telescope leg, and
straightened up his back, with the sudden awkward movement of a similarly
placed lounger surprised by a lady in a hotel parlor. The episode seemed
to knock the enthusiasm out of him, for after a moment he exclaimed in
rather a subdued tone:--

"Rather remarkable nigger, this servant of Jack's. I s'pose it is the
influence of yo' New York ways, but I am not accustomed to his kind."

I began to defend Jefferson, but he raised both hands in protest.

"Yes, I know--education and thirty dollars a month. All very fine, but
give me the old house-servants of the South--the old Anthonys, and
Keziahs, and Rachels. They never went about rigged up like a stick of
black sealing-wax in a suit of black co't-plaster. They were easy-goin'
and comfortable. Yo' interest was their interest; they bore yo' name,
looked after yo' children, and could look after yo' house, too. Now see
this nigger of Jack's; he's better dressed than I am, tips round as solemn
on his toes as a marsh-crane, and yet I'll bet a dollar he's as slick and
cold-hearted as a high-water clam. That's what education has done for
_him_.

"You never knew Anthony, my old butler? Well, I want to tell you, he _was_
a servant, as _was_ a servant. During Mrs. Slocomb's life"--here the major
assumed a reminiscent air, pinching his fat chin with his thumb and
forefinger--"we had, of co'se, a lot of niggers; but this man Anthony! By
gravy! when he filled yo' glass with some of the old madeira that had
rusted away in my cellar for half a century,"--here the major now slipped
his thumb into the armhole of his vest,--"it tasted like the nectar of the
gods, just from the way Anthony poured it out.

"But you ought to have seen him move round the table when dinner was over!
He'd draw himself up like a drum-major, and throw back the mahogany doors
for the ladies to retire, with an air that was captivatin'." The major was
now on his feet--his reminiscent mood was one of his best. "That's been a
good many years ago, colonel, but I can see him now just as plain as if he
stood before me, with his white cotton gloves, white vest, and green coat
with brass buttons, standin' behind Mrs. Slocomb's chair. I can see the
old sidebo'd, suh, covered with George III. silver, heirlooms of a
century,"--this with a trance-lik