“Who is there?”
“Old Pete,”
“Well, tell him to come and take this gentleman’s horse.”
Pete came, and I went with him to the gate where I had fastened my horse. Here he called for some younger slave to come and take him down to “the pen,” while he took off the saddle.
All this time it was raining, but any rapidity of movement was out of the question. Pete continued shouting. “Why not lead the horse to the pen yourself?” I asked. “I must take care of de saddle and tings, massa; tote ’em to de house whar dey’ll be safe. Dese niggers is so treacherous, can’t leave nothin’ roun’ but dey’ll hook suthing off of it.”
Next morning, at dawn of day, I saw honest Pete come into the room where I was in bed and go stealthily to his young master’s clothes, probably mistaking them for mine. I moved and he dropped them, and slunk out to the next room, where he went loudly to making a fire. I managed to see the horse well fed night and morning.
There were three pretty young women in this house, of good manners and well dressed, except for the abundance of rings and jewelry which they displayed at breakfast. One of them surprised me not a little at the table. I had been offered, in succession, fried ham and eggs, sweet potatoes, apple-pie, corn-bread, and molasses; this last article I declined, and passed it to the young lady opposite, looking to see how it was to be used. She had, on a breakfast plate, fried ham and eggs and apple-pie, and poured molasses between them.
June 1st.—I stopped last evening at the house of a man who was called “Doctor” by his family, but who was, to judge from his language, very illiterate. His son, by whom I was first received, followed me to the stable. He had ordered a negro child to lead my horse, but as I saw the little fellow couldn’t hold him I went myself. He had no fodder (corn-leaves), and proposed to give the horse some shucks (corn-husks) dipped in salt water, and, as it was now too late to go further, I assented. Belshazzar licked them greedily, but would not eat them, and they seemed to destroy his appetite for corn, for late in the evening, having groped my way into the stable, I found seven small ears of corn, almost untasted, in the manger. I got the young man to come out and give him more.
The “Doctor” returned from “a hunt,” as he said, with no game but a turtle, which he had taken from a “trot line”—a line, with hooks at intervals, stretched across the river.