the manners of their master
and mistress, especially in the ceremonies of the table, all was conducted
with great propriety and good order. The food was well cooked, and in a
very plentiful supply. They had also managed in some way, to get a good
quantity of excellent wine, which was sipped in the most approved and
modern style. Every dusky face was lighted up, and every eye sparkled with
joy. However ill fed they might have been, here, for once, there was
plenty. Suffering and toil was forgotten, and they all seemed with one
accord to give themselves up to the intoxication of pleasurable amusement.

House servants were of course, "the stars" of the party; all eyes were
turned to them to see how they conducted, for they, among slaves, are what
a military man would call "fugle-men." The field hands, and such of them
as have generally been excluded from the dwelling of their owners, look to
the house servant as a pattern of politeness and gentility. And indeed, it
is often the only method of obtaining any knowledge of the manners of what
is called "genteel society;" hence, they are ever regarded as a privileged
class; and are sometimes greatly envied, while others are bitterly hated.
And too often justly, for many of them are the most despicable
tale-bearers and mischief-makers, who will, for the sake of the favor of
his master or mistress, frequently betray his fellow-slave, and by
tattling, get him severely whipped; and for these acts of perfidy, and
sometimes downright falsehood, he is often rewarded by his master, who
knows it is for his interest to keep such ones about him; though he is
sometimes obliged, in addition to a reward, to send him away, for fear
of the vengeance of the betrayed slaves. In the family of his master,
the example of bribery and treachery is ever set before him, hence it is,
that insurrections and stampedes are so generally detected. Such slaves
are always treated with more affability than others, for the slaveholder
is well aware that he stands over a volcano, that may at any moment rock
his foundation to the center, and with one mighty burst of its long
suppressed fire, sweep him and his family to destruction. When he lies
down at night, he knows not but that ere another morning shall dawn, he
may be left mangled and bleeding, and at the mercy of those maddened
slaves whom he has so long ruled with a rod of iron.

But the supper, like other events, came to an end at last. The expensive
table