[Footnote A:  The ‘North Counties’ are the north-eastern portion of North Carolina, and include the towns of Washington and Newberne.  They are an old turpentine region, and the trees are nearly exhausted.  The finer virgin forests of South Carolina, and other cotton States, have tempted many of these farmers to emigrate thither, within the past ten years, and they now own nearly all the trees that are worked in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.  They generally have few slaves of their own, their hands being hired of wealthier men in their native districts.  The ‘hiring’ is an annual operation, and is done at Christmas time, when the negroes are frequently allowed to go home.  They treat the darkies well, give them an allowance of meat (salt pork or beef), as much corn as they can eat, and a gill of whisky daily.  No class of men at the South are so industrious, energetic, and enterprising.  Though not so well informed, they have many of the traits of our New England farmers; in fact, are frequently called ‘North Carolina Yankees.’  It was these people the Overseer proposed to hang.  The reader will doubtless think that ’hanging was not good enough for them.’]

’I wouldn’t do that:  in a free country every man has a right to his opinions.’

’Not to sech opinions as them.  A man may think, but he mustn’t think onraasonable.’

’I don’t know, but it seems to me reasonable, that if the negroes cost these farmers now one hundred and fifty dollars a year, and they could hire them, if free, for a hundred, that they would make by abolition.’

‘Ab’lish’n!  By G——­, sir, ye ain’t an ab’lishener, is ye?’ exclaimed the fellow, in an excited tone, bringing his hand down on the table in a way that set the crockery a-dancing.

‘Come, come, my friend,’ I replied, in a mild tone, and as unruffled as a basin of water that has been out of a December night; ’you’ll knock off the dinner things, and I’m not quite through.’

’Wal, sir, I’ve heerd yer from the North, and I’d like to know if yer an ab’lishener.’

’My dear sir, you surprise me.  You certainly can’t expect a modest man like me to speak of himself.’

’Ye can speak of what ye d——­ please, but ye can’t talk ab’lish’n har, by G——­,’ he said, again applying his hand to the table, till the plates and saucers jumped up, performed several jigs, then several reels, and then rolled over in graceful somersaults to the floor.

At this juncture, the Colonel and Madam P——­ entered.

Observing the fall in his crockery, and the general confusion of things, the Colonel quietly asked, ‘What’s to pay?’

I said nothing, but burst into a fit of laughter at the awkward fix the Overseer was in.  That gentleman also said nothing, but looked as if he would like to find vent through a rat-hole or a window-pane.  Jim, however, who stood at the back of my chair, gave his eloquent thoughts utterance, very much as follows:—­