was inventoried and sold with the other property.  The Colonel, then just of age, and a young man of fortune, bought her and took her to the residence of his mother in Charleston.  A governess was provided for her, and a year or two afterwards she was taken to the North to be educated.  There she was frequently visited by the Colonel; and when fifteen her condition became such that she was obliged to return home.  He conveyed her to the plantation, where her elder son, David, was soon afterwards born, ’Aunt Lucy’ officiating on the occasion.  When the child was two years old, leaving it in charge of the aged negress, she accompanied the Colonel to Europe, where they remained for a year.  Subsequently she passed another year at a Northern seminary; and then, returning to the plantation, was duly installed as its mistress, and had ever since presided over its domestic affairs.  She was kind and good to the negroes, who were greatly attached to her, and much of the Colonel’s wealth was due to her excellent management of the estate.

Six years after the birth of ‘young Massa Davy,’ the Colonel married his present wife, that lady having full knowledge of his left-handed connection with Madam P——­, and consenting that the ‘bond-woman’ should remain on the plantation, as its mistress.  The legitimate wife resided, during most of the year, in Charleston, and when at the homestead took little interest in domestic matters.  On one of her visits to the plantation, twelve years before, her daughter, Miss Clara, was born, and within a week, and under the same roof, Madam P——­ presented the Colonel with a son,—­the lad Thomas, of whom I have spoken.  As the mother was a slave, the children were so also at their birth, but they had been manumitted by their father.  One of them was being educated in Germany; and it was intended that both should spend their lives in that country, the taint in their blood being an insuperable bar to their ever acquiring social position at the South.

As she finished the story, the old woman said, ’Massa Davy am bery kind to de missus, sar, but he love de ma’am; an’ he can’t help it, ’cause she’m jess so good as de angels.’[K]

I looked at my watch,—­it was nearly ten o’clock, and I rose to go.  As I did so the old negress said,—­

’Don’t yer gwo, massa, ’fore you hab sum ob aunty’s wine; you’m good friends wid Scip, and I knows you’se not too proud to drink wid brack folks, ef you am from de Norf.’

Being curious to know what quality of wine a plantation slave indulged in, I accepted the invitation.  She went to the side-board, and brought out a cut-glass decanter, and three cracked tumblers, which she placed on the table.  Filling the glasses to the brim, she passed one to Scip, and one to me, and, with the other in her hand, resumed her seat.  Wishing her a good many happy years, and Scip a pleasant journey home, I emptied the glass.  It was Scuppernong, and the pure juice of the grape!