The dinner-bell sounded a short while after Jim had finished the scrubbing operation, and I went to the table with an appetite I had not felt for a week.  My whole system seemed rejuvenated, and I am not sure that I should, at that moment, have declined a wrestling match with Heenan himself.

I found at dinner only the Overseer and the young son of Madam P——­, the Colonel and the lady being still at the cabin of the dying boy.  The dinner, though a queer mixture of viands, would not have disgraced, except, perhaps, in the cooking, the best of our Northern hotels.  Venison, bacon, wild fowl, hominy, poultry, corn-bread, French ‘made-dishes,’ and Southern ‘common doin’s,’ with wines and brandies of the choicest brands, were placed on the table together.

‘Dis, massa,’ said Jim, ’am de raal juice; it hab ben in de cellar eber since de house war built.  Massa tole me to gib you some, wid him complimen’s.’

Passing it to my companions, we drank the Colonel’s health in as fine wine as I ever tasted.

I had taken an instinctive dislike to the Overseer at the breakfast-table, and my aversion was not lessened by learning his treatment of Sam; curiosity to learn what manner of man he was, however, led me, towards the close of our meal, to ‘draw him out,’ as follows:—­

‘What is the political sentiment, sir, of this section of the State?’

’Wal, I reckon most of the folks ‘bout har’ is Union; they’re from the “old North,” and gin’rally pore trash.’

’I have heard that the majority of the turpentine getters are enterprising men and good citizens,—­more enterprising, even, than the cotton and rice planters.’

‘Wal, they is enterprisin’, ‘cause they don’t keer for nuthin’ ‘cep’ money.’

‘The man who is absorbed in money-getting is generally a quiet citizen.’

‘P’raps that’s so.  But I think a man sh’u’d hev a soul suthin’ ’bove dollars.  Them folks will take any sort o’ sarce from the Yankees, ef they only buy thar truck.’

‘What do you suffer from the Yankees?’

’Suffer from the Yankees?  Don’t they steal our niggers, and hain’t they ‘lected an ab’lishener for President?’

‘I’ve been at the North lately, but I am not aware that is so.’

’So! it’s damnably so, sir.  I knows it.  We don’t mean to stand it eny longer.’

‘What will you do?’

’We’ll secede, and then give ’em h—­l, ef they want it!’

’Will it not be necessary to agree among yourselves before you do that?  I met a turpentine farmer below here who openly declared that he is friendly to abolishing slavery.  He thinks the masters can make more money by hiring than by owning the negroes.’

’Yes, that’s the talk of them North County[A] fellers, who’ve squatted round har.  We’ll hang every mother’s son on ’em, by G——.’