CHARLIE: I'll return in two minutes. (Exits at right.)
FELIX: (Unfastening catch that holds him to dog-house.) And I will be gone in one minute. (Exits at Centre.)
(MR. MAYNARD and VIOLA enter from house.)
MAYNARD: Viola, I am worried.
VIOLA: What's the matter, father?
MAYNARD: I am afraid that Old Black Joe's mind is beginning to weaken. Sometimes he sits for hours babbling about the old plantation as it existed in the days of '61.
VIOLA: How strange!
MAYNARD: Only last week a celebrated doctor assured me that if Old Black Joe could but gaze once more on the old plantation as it looked before the War, his mental powers would come back to him as sharp and clear as ever.
VIOLA: I have an idea.
CHARLIE: (Appearing suddenly from Right.) Well, pickle it, because it's going to be a hard Winter.