“Jes’ across de hall, Miss Elsie.”

“That is a good arrangement,” said Mr. Dinsmore.  “Now, daughter, I think we should repair to the library.  It is near the hour you appointed for Mr. Spriggs.”

“Just as handsome, as tastefully, appropriately, and luxuriously furnished as the others,” was Elsie’s comment on the library.  “I seem to see the same hand everywhere.”

“Yes, and it is the same all over the house,” replied her father.  “The books here will delight you; for a private library it is a very fine one, containing many hundred volumes, as you may see at a glance; standard works on history, and the arts and sciences, biographies, travels, works of reference, the works of the best poets, novelists, etc.”

“Ah, how we will enjoy them while here!  But it seems a sad pity they should have lain on those shelves unused for so many years.”

“Not entirely, my child; I have enjoyed them in my brief visits to the plantation, and have always allowed the overseer free access to them, on the single condition that they should be handled with care, and each returned promptly to its proper place when done with.  But come, take this easy chair by this table; here are some fine engravings I want you to look at.”

Elsie obeyed, but had scarcely seated herself when the door was thrown open and a servant’s voice announced, “Massa Spriggs, Massa Dinsmore and Miss Elsie.”

Spriggs, a tall, broad-shouldered, powerfully-built man, with dark hair and beard and a small, keen black eye, came forward with a bold free air and a “Good-even’, miss, good-even’, sir;” adding, as he helped himself to a seat without waiting for an invitation, “Well, here I am, and I s’pose you’ve somethin’ to say or you wouldn’t have appointed the meetin’.”

“Yes, Mr. Spriggs,” said Elsie, folding her pretty hands in her lap and looking steadily and coldly into his brazen face, “I have this to say; that I entirely disapprove of flogging, and will have none of it on the estate.  I hope you understand me.”

“That’s plain English and easy understood, Miss Dinsmore, and Dinsmore, and of course you have a right to dictate in the matter; but I tell you what, these darkies o’ yours are a dreadful lazy set, specially that Suse; and it’s mighty hard for folks that’s been used to seein’ things done up spick and span and smart to put up with it.”

“But some amount of patience with the natural slowness of the negro is a necessary trait in the character of an overseer who wishes to remain in my employ.”

“Well, miss, I always calculate to do the very best I can by my employers, and when you come to look round the estate, I guess you’ll find things in prime order; but I couldn’t ha’ done it without lettin’ the darkies know they’d got to toe the mark right straight.”

“They must attend to the work, of course, and if they won’t do so willingly, must under compulsion; but there are milder measures than this brutal flogging.”