Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. I.djvu/326

 among rags as in a dog-kennel. This was the provision which one of the planters made for the old and sick among his servants! What a fate is theirs who have fallen into such circumstances! And what pitying eye beholds them excepting—God's?



In one slave village near a great house, I saw remarkably handsome people, and living in good houses. But I observed that the glances of the young men were gloomy and defiant, with no expression of kindness towards their owners. That did not look well. On our homeward way we drove through many slave villages. It was a pleasant sight to see the fire-light flickering in the small houses—for each family has its own house—and to see the negroes come so early from their day-labour. This district consists of a sandy, wood-covered soil. The wood is principally a kind of yellowish pine—the yellow-pine, or light-wood, with great tufts of six-inch long leaves, which sometimes assume the likeness of the palmetto. It is horribly monotonous; but splendid, lofty flowers, lupines, and rose-red azaleas, grow among the trees, and light up the woods. It was late and dark before we reached home, and I sate and looked at the lights which I saw flash here and there near the road or in the wood, but which vanished as we approached. I called Mr. Poinsett's attention to them, and he said that they must be fire-flies. They make their appearance about this time. I hope to make a nearer acquaintance with the shining creatures.

21st.—I have to-day wandered about deliciously in wood and field, and in so doing, came to a river called the Black River. I saw slaves at work not far off, under a white overseer, from whom I requested and obtained an old negro to take me across the river. The good-humoured old man was more free-spoken and clear-headed in his conversation than I have commonly found the slaves