gentleman to a Mr.
G---- of Darien, and that, upon the latter desiring to purchase him, Mr.
K---- had sold the man without apprising him or any one member of his
family that he had done so--a humane proceeding that makes one's blood
boil when one hears of it. He had owned the man ever since he was a boy.
Psyche urged me very much to obtain an order permitting her to see her
mother and brothers. I will try and obtain it for her, but there seems
generally a great objection to the visits of slaves from neighbouring
plantations, and, I have no doubt, not without sufficient reason. The more
I see of this frightful and perilous social system, the more I feel that
those who live in the midst of it must make their whole existence one
constant precaution against danger of some sort or other.

I have given Aleck a second reading lesson with S----, who takes an
extreme interest in his newly acquired alphabetical lore. He is a very
quick and attentive scholar, and I should think a very short time would
suffice to teach him to read; but, alas! I have not even that short time.
When I had done with my class, I rode off with Jack, who has become quite
an expert horseman, and rejoices in being lifted out of the immediate
region of snakes by the length of his horse's legs. I cantered through the
new wood paths, and took a good sloping gallop through the pine land to
St. Annie's. The fire is actually still burning in the woods. I came home
quite tired with the heat, though my ride was not a long one.

Just as I had taken off my habit and was preparing to start off with
M----and the chicks for Jones's, in the wood wagon, old Dorcas, one of
the most decrepid, rheumatic, and miserable old negresses from the
further end of the plantation, called in to beg for some sugar. She had
walked the whole way from her own settlement, and seemed absolutely
exhausted then, and yet she had to walk all the way back. It was not
otherwise than slightly meritorious in me, my dear E----, to take her up
in the wagon and endure her abominable dirt and foulness in the closest
proximity, rather than let her drag her poor old limbs all that way
back; but I was glad when we gained her abode and lost her company. I am
mightily reminded occasionally in these parts of Trinculo's soliloquy
over Caliban. The people at Jones's had done their work at half-past
three. Most of the houses were tidy and clean, so were many of the
babies. On visiting the cabin of an exceedingl