in love with it. She gave me a very sad
character of Mr. K----, confirming by her general description of him the
impression produced by all the details I have received from our own
people. As for any care for the moral or religious training of the
slaves, that, she said, was a matter that never troubled his thoughts;
indeed, his only notion upon the subject of religion, she said, was,
that it was something _not bad_ for white women and children.

We drove home by moonlight; and as we came towards the woods in the middle
of the island, the fire-flies glittered out from the dusky thickets as if
some magical golden veil was every now and then shaken out into the
darkness. The air was enchantingly mild and soft, and the whole way
through the silvery night delightful.

My dear friend, I have at length made acquaintance with a live
rattlesnake. Old Scylla had the pleasure of discovering it while hunting
for some wood to burn. Israel captured it, and brought it to the house for
my edification. I thought it an evil-looking beast, and could not help
feeling rather nervous while contemplating it, though the poor thing had a
noose round its neck and could by no manner of means have extricated
itself. The flat head, and vivid vicious eye, and darting tongue, were
none of them lovely to behold; but the sort of threatening whirr produced
by its rattle, together with the deepening and fading of the marks on its
skin, either with its respiration or the emotions of fear and anger it was
enduring, were peculiarly dreadful and fascinating. It was quite a young
one, having only two or three rattles in its tail. These, as you probably
know, increase in number by one annually; so that you can always tell the
age of the amiable serpent you are examining--if it will let you count the
number of joints of its rattle. Captain F---- gave me the rattle of one
which had as many as twelve joints. He said it had belonged to a very
large snake which had crawled from under a fallen tree trunk on which his
children were playing. After exhibiting his interesting captive, Israel
killed, stuffed, and presented it to me for preservation as a trophy, and
made me extremely happy by informing me that there was a nest of them
where this one was found. I think with terror of S---- running about with
her little socks not reaching half-way up her legs, and her little frocks
not reaching half-way down them. However, we shall probably not make
acquaintance with many