the
Colonel's shirts--all of mine having undergone a drenching--soon made a
tolerably presentable appearance. The negro then conducted me to the
breakfast-room, where I found the family assembled.

It consisted, besides the housekeeper, of a tall, raw-boned,
sandy-haired personage, with a low brow, a blear eye, and a sneaking
look--the overseer of the plantation; and of a well-mannered,
intelligent lad--with the peculiarly erect carriage and uncommon
blending of good-natured ease and dignity which distinguished my
host--who was introduced to me as the housekeeper's son.

Madam P----, who presided over the "tea-things," was a person of perhaps
thirty-five, but a rich olive complexion, enlivened by a delicate red
tint, and relieved by thick masses of black hair, made her appear to a
casual observer several years younger. Her face bore vestiges of great
beauty, which time, and, perhaps, care, had mellowed but not
obliterated, and her conversation indicated high cultivation. She had
evidently mingled in refined society in this country and in Europe, and
it was a strange freak of fortune that had reduced her to a menial
condition in the family of a backwoods planter.

After some general conversation, the Colonel remarked that his wife and
daughter would pass the winter in Charleston.

"And do _you_ remain on the plantation?" I inquired.

"Oh yes, I am needed here," he replied; "but Madam's son is with my
family."

"Madam's son!" I exclaimed in astonishment, forgetting in my surprise
that the lady was present.

"Yes, sir," she remarked, "my oldest boy is twenty."

"Excuse me, Madam; I forgot that in your climate one never grows old."

"There you are wrong, sir; I'm sure I _feel_ old when I think how soon
my boys will be men."

"Not old yet, Alice," said the Colonel, in a singularly familiar tone;
"you seem to me no older than when you were fifteen."

"You have been long acquainted," I remarked, not knowing exactly what to
say.

"Oh, yes," replied my host, "we were children together."

"Your Southern country, Madam, affords a fine field for young men of
enterprise."

"My eldest son resides in Germany," replied the lady. "He expects to
make that country his home. He would have passed his examination at
Heidelberg this autumn had not circumstances called him here."

"You are widely separated," I replied.

"Yes, sir; his father thinks it best, and I suppose it is. Thomas,
here, is to return with his brother,