A corner of Casa Bianca.
It is a great disappointment. Nat is in some ways so faithful and intelligent that I thought I could make him understand how I wanted the soil. He is a fine rice-field hand. He rented ten acres and always made good crops. This is only one acre of very rich black land with a western slope to a little branch; it has been pastured for years.
In the happy days when I lived at Casa Bianca (about a hundred years ago) it was the vegetable garden, and in it we always grew delicious celery; but then the gardener was an expert, one of the wonderful products of the past, Paul Wynns by name. I should like to tell his story some day. Thanks to his fidelity, cleverness, and diligence the family silver was all saved in the very teeth of the all-absorbing Sherman.
It was some years after the war, and he was very old when he looked after our garden, having a boy under him to do the work. He was a Methodist preacher of some distinction and had great power with his own people, which was very fortunate, for in a time of upset and intoxication, when the poor darkeys were rudderless and one heard the boast often, "De bottom rail dey on top now," Paul's good sense and good heart—I may say his wisdom—were a great blessing, and he left his mark behind him. In the time before 1860 he was in charge of everything in this household, a most accomplished house servant.
My predecessor at Casa Bianca was a woman of immense ability and cleverness. She spent much time abroad and was a great friend of the Grand Duke of Weimar, who on one occasion about 1862 said he had always desired an African in his suite. Mrs. P. said at once:—
"I will send you one as a present."
The Grand Duke demurred, but on her return home, though the war was raging, she fulfilled her promise. She asked Paul if he would like his son Tom to be the lad chosen to go, that he would have the best education and live in the midst of luxury. Paul, after mature deliberation, accepted the honor for his son and in spite of war and turmoil Tom was sent.
The Grand Duke was delighted with him and treated him with the greatest favor. He married the daughter of an "honorable Councillor" and lived happy ever afterward. He lost his life in his efforts to render help when a fire broke out in the palace, dying from the effects of overexertion. His monthly letters were the delight of his father. Since Paul's death I have heard nothing of the family.