“Who is in his farm now, Carson?”

“A very decent man, sir.  One Jackson, an exceedingly worthy, honest, industrious fellow.  I take some credit to myself for bringing Jackson on your estate.”

“Is Jackson married?  Has he a family?”

“Married!  Let me see!  Why—­yes—­I believe he is.  Oh, by the by, now I think of it, he is married, and to a very respectable woman, too.  Certainly, I remember—­she usually accompanies him when he pays his rents.”

“Then your system must be a good one, Carson; you weed out the idle and profligate, to replace them by the honest and industrious.”

“Precisely so, sir; that is my system.”

“Yet there are agents who invert your system in some cases; who drive out the honest and industrious, and encourage the idle and profligate; who connive at them, Carson, and fill the estates they manage with their own dependents, or relatives, as the case may be.  You have been alway’s opposed to this, and I’m glad to hear it.”

“No man, Colonel B------, filling the situation which I have the honor
to hold under you, could study your interests with greater zeal and
assiduity.  God knows, I have had so many quarrels, and feuds, and
wranglings, with these fellows, in order to squeeze money out of them to
meet your difficulties, that, upon my honor, I think if it required
five dozen oaths to hang me, they could be procured upon your estate.  An
agent, Colonel, who is faithful to the landlord, is seldom popular with
the tenants.”

“I can’t exactly see that, Carson; and I have known an unpopular landlord rendered highly popular by the judicious management of an enlightened and honest agent, who took no bribes, Carson, and who neither extorted from nor ground the tenantry under him—­something like a counterpart of yourself.  But you may be right in general.”

“Is there anything particular, Colonel, in which I can assist you now?”

“Not now.  I was anxious to hear the character of those fellows from you who know them.  Come down about eleven or twelve o’clock; these petitioners will be assembled, and you may be able to assist me.”

“Colonel, remember I forewarn you, that you are plunging into a mesh of difficulties, which you will never be able to disentangle.  Leave the fellows to me, sir; I know how to deal with them.  Besides, upon my honor, you are not equal to it, in point of health.  You look ill.  Pray allow me to take home their papers, and I shall have all clear and satisfactory before two o’clock.  They know my method, sir.”

“They do, Carson, they do; but I am anxious they should also know mine.  Besides, it will amuse me, for I want excitement.  Good day, for the present; you will be down about twelve, or one at the furthest.”

“Certainly, sir.  Good morning, Colonel.”

The agent was too shrewd a man not to perceive that there were touches of cutting irony in some of the Colonel’s expressiqns, which he did not like.  There was a dryness, too, in the tone of his voice and words, blended with a copiousness of good humor, which, taken altogether, caused him to feel uncomfortable.  He could have wished the Colonel at the devil:  yet had the said Colonel never been more familiar in his life, nor, with one or two exceptions, readier to agree with almost every observation made to him.