ople say, sir, they'se got no manners. Now you
say you'll give so and so (carefully repeating my terms). Well, sir,
I'se come to say I'se 'gree for work. I 'speck to work, sir. I want to
lay my bones in dat air bush (pointing to cemetery), and don't want to
go nowhar else; that's what I wanted to say, sir." Then the other two
or three women chimed in with smiling faces and said the same in fewer
words, and so I bid them good-morning. I told them, too, that if some
of those people who made so much noise didn't look out, they would get
turned off the place, just as Venus and her gang got turned off last
year. The fact is, they are trying to play brag, as such people often
will; but they will all go to work in a few days, I feel sure.

_Jan. 17._ Mr. Folsom went over to Port Royal Island with Mr. G. on
Sunday, taking their own horses, and rode over Sherman's pontoons at
Port Royal Ferry, without a challenge, and then up the mainland as
far as Pocotaligo Bridge, around which the 17th Army Corps is
encamped, in full possession of the railroad. Mr. G. called here an
hour ago on his way back, and told some of his experiences. He says
they were taken for "Secesh" by our own troops, all the way, just as
we all are in Beaufort, for the officers themselves seem to be hardly
aware that we are all Yankees, taking us for the old residents of the
island, made loyal by our experiences.

Every one wonders what brought Secretary Stanton here. He seems to
have done something, at any rate, viz., hauled General Foster over the
coals severely for his negro conscription last summer, promoted
General Saxton to a brevet major-general, with enlarged powers; and,
report says, put General Howard in place of General Foster. The
newspapers will tell you all I know, and more, too, without doubt. Mr.
Tomlinson, who was about disgusted with things here as he found them
when he came back from the North, and had concluded to go to
Philadelphia to take some position offered him there by the
Philadelphia committee, now thinks he will remain here,--for which I
am very glad. Very few men could be so useful as he in this place; for
though he has a weak spot on the question of negro character, he has a
vast deal of good sense in detail, and is perfectly unimpeachable in
his stern regard for justice, never allowing himself to be _used_ in
any way for the furthering of the designs of interested parties. No
one who has not spent some time under martial law knows