Page:Memorials of a Southern Planter.djvu/249

 Rh brought to the front in rotation. It was as good as a tooth-drawing!

"I can recall so many movements and gestures,—that way he had of throwing his leg out,—I often try to do that, but have never succeeded to my satisfaction. I think it must be some 'Old-Line Whig' sign, and no one but one of them can achieve it.

"This is the bright side of the picture, and I turn with reluctance to the other, the one which looks like a dark one, but is far more beautiful than the former, and is bright with an inner radiance which is not seen in the earlier time.

"My first visit to Burleigh after the war seemed like an evil dream. The old nursery, where the long line of 'knitters' were ranged on rainy days, is a kitchen now with all the necessary appointments; the well-furnished apartments look almost bare now; not a servant appears about the premises. I find the same warm greeting, but the hands extended to welcome me are no longer the soft ones of a gentleman. Instead of them I seem to grasp the toil-hardened ones of a laboring man, and such they are. The man born and bred in all the comfort of a Virginia home, in manhood saying to his servant 'do this, and he doeth it,' has in advancing years found himself bereft of the faithful wife who for so many years shared his life, and deprived of nearly all his possessions. How does he bear himself now? The time formerly devoted to the care of his estate, to the exercise of hospitality, to enjoyment, is not given to manual labor. A few faithful servants still linger around the old home and cling to 'ole marster'; but times are changed with them too, and they must toil for their daily bread, formerly dealt out to them without stint from 'ole marster's' table. So I see that dear 'ole marster' cutting with his own hands the wood for the fires, toiling with it up the long flight of stairs, making fires, doing the family washing, and after a hard day's work, seeing you make the starch over the dining-room fire he said, so regretfully, 'I wish I could make the starch too.' I recall how he insisted on washing my clothes also, and how I let him believe he was doing it.