Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/322

Rh around us, and saw to our surprise, a carriage and horses standing on the top of the highest sand-hill in this part of the island. Was it? Yes, certainly it was our equipage which had ascended this hill from the water, and there on the box, sate quite tranquilly, the Yankee boy, looking around him, and spying out the geography of the island.

When, in the course of about two hours, we had at length piloted ourselves to the southern side of the island, and down to the fortress, there we found our Yankee boy and his carriage waiting for us as tranquil and good-tempered as if everything had gone on in the best manner possible.

We did not think that it had, and still less so when we saw, before we could reach the shore, the last steam-boat leave the island for the city. We should be obliged to remain over night in the island. But we found a good hotel, and we had the sea, and the beautiful moonlight, and thus that night on Sullivan's Island, a great portion of which was spent awake, remains as one of the delightfully memorable nights which I spent beneath the heaven of South Carolina.

To-day, as we were driving out of the city in a carriage, I saw a man taking along a young negro lad, with his hands tied with a rope. The man was on horseback, and the lad, he might be about fourteen or fifteen, walked behind the horse. He had probably attempted to run away, and was now brought in this manner to the city to be flogged. The people looked, with indifference, as on a very common sight. Beautiful manners!

On one of my walks in the city, with my good Mrs. W. H., we saw an old, well-dressed negro, sitting on a stone, bleeding at the nose. She stopped.

“Are you bleeding, daddy?” asked she.

“Yes, missis, yes,” replied he, very civilly, “it will not stop.”